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ESSAY 


CALCAREOUS   MANURES 


THIRD  EDITION. 


BY     EDMUND     RUFFIN, 


PETERSBURG : 
PRINTED    FOR    THE    AUTHOR. 

1842. 


A  ^\\V.|J5  v 


Entered  according'  to  act  of  Congress,  by  Edmund  Ruffln,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court 
of  the  Eastern  District  of  Virginia. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION. 


The  object  of  this  essay  is  to  investigate  the  peculiar  features  and  qualities 
of  the  soils  of  our  tidewater  district,  to  show  the  causes  of  their  general  unpro- 
ductiveness, and  to  point  out  means,  as  yet  but  little  used,  for  their  effectual  and 
profitable  improvement.  My  observations  are  particularly  addressed  to  the  cul- 
tivators of  that  part  of  Virginia  which  lies  between  the  eea  coast  and  the  falls  of 
the  rivers,  ami  are  generally  intended  to  be  applied  only  within  those  limits.  By 
thus  confining  the  application  of  the  opinions  which  will  be  maintained,  it  is  not 
intended  to  deny  the  propriety  of  their  being  further  extended.  On  the  contrary, 
I  do  not  doubt  that  they  mav  correctly  apply  to  all  similar  soils,  under  similar 
circumstances;  for  tin'  operations  of  ISaturc  are  directed  by  uniform  laws,  and 
lik>  causes  must  every  where  produce  like  ellects.  Hut  as  1  shall  rely  lor  proofs 
on  such  facts  as  are  either  sufficiently  well  known  already,  or  may  easily  be 
tested  by  any  inquirer,  I  do  not  choose  to  extend  niy  around  so  far  as  to  be  op- 
posed by  the  assertion  of  other  facts,  the  truth  of  which  can  neither  be  esta- 
blished nor  oveithrown  by  any  available  or  sufficient  lestii 

The  peculiar  qualities  of  our  soils  have  been  little  noticed,  and  the  causes  of 
those  peculiarities  have  nei  er  been  sought ;  and  though  new  and  valuable  truths 
may  await  the  first  explorers  of  this  opening  for  agricultural  research,  yet  they 
can  scarcely  avoid  mistakes  sufficiently  numerous  to  moderate  the  triumph  of 
success.  I  am  not  blind  to  the  difficulties  of  the  investigation,  nor  to  my  own 
unfitness  to  overcome  them  ;  nor  should  1  have  hazarded  the  attempt,  but  for  the 
belief  that  such  an  investigation  is  all-important  for  the  improvement  of  our  soil 
and  agriculture,  and  that  it  was  in  vain  to  hope  that  it  would  be  undertaken  by 
those  who  were  better  qualified  to  do  justice  to  the  subject.  I  ask  a  deliberate 
hearing,  and  a  strict  scrutiny  of  my  op:nions.  from  those  most  interested  in  their 
truth.  If  a  change,  in  most  of  our  lands,  from  hopeless  sterility  to  a  high  state 
of  productiveness,  i*  a  vain  fancy,  it  will  be  easy  to  discover  and  expose  the  fal- 
lacy of  my  views  ;  but  if  these  \  lews  arc  well  founded,  none  deserve  better  the 
attention  of  farmers,  and  nothing  can  more  seriously  atlect  the  future  agricul- 
tural prosperity  of  our  country.  An  where  ought  such  improvements  to  he  more 
highly  valued,  or  more  eagerly  sought,  than  among  03,  where  so  many  causes 
have  concurred  to  reduce  our  product-,  ami  the  prices  to  the  lowest 

state,  and  are  yearly  extending  want,  and  its  consequence,  ignorance,  among  the 
cultivators  and  proprietors. 

In  pursuing  this  inquiry,  it  tvill  be  necessary  to  show  the  truth  of  various  facts 
and  opinions  which  as  yet  are  unsupported  by  authority,  and  most  of  which  have 
scarcely  been  noticed  by  agricultural  writers,  unless  to  be  denied.  The  number 
of  proofs  that  will  be  required,  and  the  discursive  course  through  which  they 
must  be  reached,  may  probably  render  more  obscure  the  reasoning  of  an  unprac- 
tised writer.  Treatises  on  agriculture  ought  to  be  so  written  a- 
understood,  though  it  should  be  al  the  exp(  nse  of  some  other  requisites  of  good 
writing  ;  and,  in  this  respect,  I  shall  be  satisfied  if  I  succeed  in  making  my  opi- 
nions intelligible  to  every  reader,  though  mam  might  well  dispense  with  such 
particular  explanations.  Agricultural  works  are  seldom  considered  as  requiring 
very  close  attention;  and  therefore,  to  be  made  useful,  they  should  be  put  in  a 
shape  suited  to  cursory  and  irregular  reading.  A  truth  may  he  clearly  established 
—  but  if  its  important  consequences  cannot  be  regularly  deduced  for  many  | 
afterwards,  the  premises  will  then  probably  havi  been  forgotten,  so  that  a  very 
particular  reference  to  them  may  be  required.  These  considerations  must  serve 
as  my  apology  lor  some  repetitions— and  for  minute  explanations  and  details, 
which  some  readers  may  deem  unnecessary. 

The  theoretical  opinions  supported  in  this  essav.  together  with  my  earliest 
experiments  with  calcareous  manures,  were  published  in  the  '  American  Farmer.' 
(vol.  iii.,  page  313,)  in  ISiJI.  No  reason  has  since  induced  me  to  retract  any  of 
the  important  positions  then  assumed.  But  the  many  imperfections  in  that  pub- 
lication, which  grew  out  of  my  want  of  experience,  made  it  my  duty,  at  some 


106096 


future  time,  to  correct  its  errors,  and  supply  the  deficiencies  of  proof,  from  the 
fruits  of  subsequent  practice  and  observation.  Witfc  these  views,  this  essay  was 
commenced  and  finished  in  1826.  But  the  work  had  so  grown  on  my  hands,  that 
instead  of  being  of  a  size  suitable  for  insertion  in  an  agricultural  journal,  it 
would  have  filled  a  volume.  The  unwillingness  to  assume  so  conspicuous  a  po- 
sition as  the  publication  in  that  form  would  have  required,  and  the  fear  that  my 
work  would  be  more  likely  to  meet  with  neglect  or  censure  than  applause,  in- 
duced me  to  lay  it  aside,  and  to  give  up  all  intention  of  publication.  Since  that 
time,  the  use  of  fossil  shells  as  manure  has  greatly  increased,  in  mv  own 
neighborhood  and  elsewhere,  and  has  been  attended  generally  with  all  the  im- 
provement and  profit  that  was  expected.  But  from  paying  no  regard  to  the  theory 
of  the  operation  of  this  manure,  and  from  not  taking  warning  from  the  known 
errors  and  losses  of  myself  as  well  as  others,  most  persons  have  used  it  injudi- 
ciously, and  have  damaged  more  or  less  of  their  lands.  So  manv  disasters  of 
this  kind  seemed  likely  to  restrain  the  use  of  this  valuable  manure,  and  even  to 
destroy  its  repu'ation,  just  as  it  was  beginning  rapidly  to  extend.  This  addi- 
tional consideration  has  at  last  induced  me  to  risk  the  publication  of  this  • 
The  experience  of  five  more  years,  since  it  was  written,  has  not  contradicted 
any  of  the  opinions  then  advanced— and  no  change  has  been  made  in  the  work, 
except  in  lorm,  and  by  continuing  the  reports  of  experiments  to  the  present  time. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  my  attempt  to  convey  instruction  is  confined  to 
a  single  means  of  improving  our  lands,  and  increasing  our  profits  :  and  though 
many  oiher  operations  are.  from  necessiiy.  incidentally  noticed,  my  opinions  or 
practices  on  such  objects  are  not  referred  to  as  furnishing  rules  for  good  hus- 
bandry. In  using  calcareous  manure  for  the  improvement  of  poor  sods,  my  la- 
bors have  been  highly  successful ;  but  that  success  is  not  necessarilv  accompanied 
by  general  good  management  and  economy.  To  those  w-ho  know  me  intimately. 
it  would  be  unnecessary  to  confess  the  small  pretensions  that  I  have  to  the  cha- 
racter of  a  good  farmer :  but  to  others  it  may  be  required,  for  the  purpose  of 
explaining  why  other  improvements  and  practices  of  good  husbandry  have  not 
more  aided,  and  kept  pace  with,  the  effects  of  mv  use  of  calcareous  manures. 

E.  R. 

Prince  George  county.  J'irginia.  January  20th, 


PREFACE  TO  SECOND  EDITION. 


When  the  first  edition  of  this  essay  was  published,  it  met  with  a  reception 
far  more  favorable,  and  a  demand  from  purchasers  much  greater,  than  the 
authors  anticipations  had  reached  ;  and  it  is  merely  in  accordance  with  the  con- 
current testimony  of  the  many  agriculturists  who  have  since  expressed  and  pub- 
lished opinions  on  the  subject,  to  say  that  the  publication  has  already  had  great 
and  valuable  effects  in  directing  attention,  and  inducing  successful  eflorts,  to  the 
improvement  of  land  by  calcareous  manures.  Experimental  knowledge  on  this 
head  has  probably  been  more  than  doubled  within  tire  last  two  years;  and  the 
narrow  limits  of  the  region  within  which  marling  had  previously  been  confined, 
have  been  enlarged  to  perhaps  len-fold  their  former  extent.  Still,  the  circum- 
stances no»v  existing,  however  changed  for  the  belter,  present  a  mere  beginning 
of  the  immense  and  valuable  improvements  of  soil,  and  increase  of  profits,  that 
must  hereafter  grow  out  of  the  use  ol  calcareous  manures,  if  their  operation  is 
properly  understood  by  those  who  apply  them.  But  if  used  without  that  know- 
ledge, their  great  value  will  certainly  not  be  found  ;  and  indeed,  they  will  often 
cause  more  loss  than  profit.  It  is  iherefore  not  so  important  to  the  farmers  of  our 
country  at  large  to  be  convinced  of  the  general  and  great  value  of  calcareous 
manures — and  to  those  in  the  great  Atlantic  tide- water  region  to  know  the  newly 
established  truth,  that  their  beds  of  fossil  shells  furnish  the  best  and  cheapest  of 
manures— as  it  is.  that  all  should  know  in  what  manner,  and  by  what  general 
laws,  these  manures  operate — how  they  produce  benefit,  and  when  they  may  be 


either  worthless  or  injurious.  And  this  more  important  end,  the  author  regrets 
to  believe  has  as  yet  scarci'K  been  even  partially  attained,  by  the  dissemination 
and  proper  understanding  of  correct  views  of  thi  abject.  OT  course  it  is  not  to 
be  supposed  thai  this  essaj  has  been  read  (if  even  heard  of)  by  one  in  ten  of 
the  many  who  have  been  prompted  by  verbal  information  to  attempt  the  practice 
it  recommends ;  and  of  those  who  have  read,  and   .  ren  expressed 

warm  appro  work,ithas  seldom  beenfound  that  their  praise  was 

discriminating,  or  founded  upon  a  thorough  examination  of  its  reasoning  and 
theoretical  views,  on  which  principally  re-t-  whatever  value  it  may  possess. 
For  all  persons  who  n  :ed,  it  may  truly  be  Baid,  that  the  volume 

embraced  Ui  and  was  worth  no  more,  than  would  be  stated  in  these 

few  word-  — "  the  application  of  calcareous  manures  will  be  found  highly  im- 
proving and  profitable."  It  is  not  tie  refore  at  all  strange,  that  the  attentive  read- 
mi;  of  a  volume  to  obtain  this  truth,  was  generally  deemed  unnecessary. 

Though  the  first  edition  of  this  work  has  been  nearly  exhausted,  the  circulation 
j  et  been  almost  confined  to  that  small  portion  of  the  state  of  Virginia  alone 
in  which  the  mode  of  improvement  recommended  had  previously  been  success- 
fully commenced,  or  had  at  least  attracted  much  attention.  But  this  district  is 
not  hcttcr  lilted  !■'  l,e  thus  improved  than  I  In-  remainder  of  the  great  tide-water 
region  stn  tching  from  I 2  1  land  to  Mobile— and  to  a  great  part  of  which  cal- 
careous manures  may  be  cheaply  applied.  It  is  only  in  parts  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia  that  many  extensive  and  highly  profitable  applications  of  fossil  shells,  or 
marl,  have  been  yet  made.  In  North  Carolina  the  value  of  the  manure  has 
been  but  lately  tried  ;  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  no  notice  of  it  has  yet 
been  taken,  or  at  least  has  not  been  made  known  ",  and  in  Florida  and  Alabama, 
(l>an-  of  which  are  peculiarly  suited  to  I  '-.)  it  is  most  erro- 

neously thought  lhat  such  improvements  are  only  profitable  for  lon-j  settled  and 
impoverished  countries.     The  farmers  ol  far  ahead  of 

those  of  Virginia  in  manuring  with  Jimc — and  il  .  but  upon  no  certain 

testimony)  that  in  .  use  has  been  made  of  the  calcareous  manure 

Which  in  Virginia  is  called  marl,  as  »  el!  as  of  the  green  sand,  which  they  even 
slill  more  erroneously  call  by  the  same  name.  Dut  whatever  may  have  been  the 
extent  of  their  use  of  calcareous  manures  of  every  kind,  and  however  great  their 
success,  it  is  believed  that  our  northern  brethren  have  been  as  little  directed  by 
correct  view-  of  the  operation  of  these  manures,  as  those  of  the  south,  who  have 

llii!  r.-ulation  of  this  work  will  be  most  useful  through  the  great 

tide  v.  hich  is  so  g<  nerally  supplied  with  underlying  beds  of  tossil 

shells,  and  so  much  of  the  soil  of  which  especially  needs  such  manure,  still  the 
assertion  may  be  V(  ntur  <l  that  th  rt  of  the  country  where  the  views 

presented,  if  true,  are  not  important  to  he  known  ;  and,  if  known,  would  not  be 
bighh  u  It  is  to  the  general  theory  of  the 

of  lertile  and  that  the  attentic  re  scrutiny  of 

both  scientific  and  practical  agriculturists  are  invited;  and  to  the  several  minor 
points  there  presented,  which  are  either  altogether  new,  or  not  established  by 
authority — such  as  the  doctrine  of  acidity  iu  soils — of  the  incapacity  ol  poor  and 
acid  soils  to  be  enriched — and  of  the  entire  absence  of  carbonate  of  liine  in  most 
of  tlie  gods  "i  this  country. 

The  circumstances  stated  abov>  d  the  publication  of  a  second  edi- 

tion as  a  supplement  to  the  'Fa  r,'  (and  suited  to  be  bound  with 

cither  volume  of  that  work,)  which,  in  lhat  form,  may  have  the  facility  of  distri- 
bution through  the  mail  — and  which  may  be  ollered  at  so  low  a  price  as  to  reach, 
as  nearlv  as  rossible.  that  general  circulation  which  is  its  author's  main  object. 

^Jwfl,'  1835. 


PREFACE  TO  THU  THIRD  EDITION. 


The  rapid  progress  of  improvement  made  by  the  use  of  calcareous  manures, 
as  well  as  the  many  misdirected  and  less  effective  attempts  to  obtain  such  re- 
sults, together  with  the  acquisition  oi'  much  recent  and  extended  information  on 
the  subject,  all  concur  in  requiring  the  new  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  Essay  on 
Calcareous  Manures,  which  the  author  now  offers  to  the  agricultural  public. 

In  the  few  years  which  have  passed  since  the  issue  ol  the  preceding  edition, 
it  is  believed  that  the  use  of  mail  and  lime,  in  lower  Virginia,  has  been  ex- 
tended over  thrice  as  much  land  as  bad  been  previously  thus  improved  ;  and  the 
previous  clear  income  of  the  farmers  thus  fertilizing  their  lands  has  probably 
been  already  thereby  increased  in  amount  by  several  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars,  and  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  lands  raised  by  as  many  millions.  These 
great  augmentations  of  annual  profits  and  of  the  true  value  of  landed  capital, 
from  this  single  source,  if  they  could  be  accurately  estimated,  would  he  seen  to 
have  produced  an  important  item  of  additional  revenue  to  the  treasury  of  the 
commonwealth.  Ami  these  additions  of  wealth  to  individuals  and  to  the  state, 
would  be  obvious  as  well  as  real,  but  for  the  existence  o>  other  circumstances 
which  have  operated  to  counteract  or  to  disguise  the  proper  results.  The  most 
important  of  such  influences  will  be  merely  referred  to  here  in  the  cursory  man- 
ner only  that  the  occasion  permits. 

In  the  first  place— besides  the  deservedly  very  low  appreciation  of  all  lands  in 
Virginia',  founded  on  the  smallness  ol'  their  products,  the  market  prices  were 
formerly  still  more  .'educed  by  the  almost  universal  urgent  desire  of  proprietors 
to  sell,  that  they  might  be  enabled  then  to  emigrate  to  the  new  and  rich  lands  of 
the  west.  The  impossibility  of  selling,  even  at  the  lowest  valuation  pric  ■,  was 
the  only  thing  which  prevented  the  actual  flood  of  emigration  being  so  much 
more  swelled  as  to  leave  half  our  lands  unoccupied  and  waste.  If  purchasers 
had  but  presented  themselves,  fully  half  the  farms  in  Prince  George  county  (and 
it  is  presumed  of  many  other  counties)  might  have  been  bought  up  at  a  considera- 
ble deduction  from  the  lowest  estimated  value  ;  and  ail  the  sellers  would  have  re- 
moved, with  all  their  capital,  to  the  western  wilderness,  To  the  then  actual  and 
regular  flow  of  emigration  from  the  now  marling  district,  an  effectual  barrier  has 
been  opposed  by  the  introduction  of  iliat  mode  of  improvement.  All  emigration 
has  ceased  wherever  by  trial  of  this  means  the  cultivators  of  the  land  found  their 
labors  to  be  richly  repaid.  Thus,  in  estimating  the  gains  of  individual?  and  of 
the  state,  on  this  score,  the  comparison  should  be  made,  not  with  the  value  of 
property  and  population  which  remained  twenty  years  ago,  but  with  what  would 
have  remained  now,  if  the  then  existing  inducements  to  emigration  had  conti- 
nued to  go  on  and  to  increase,  as  they  would  have  done,  with  time. 

Next— the  actual  increase  of  intrinsic  value  of  mailed  lands  is  far  from  being 
even  yet  fully  appreciated,  because  of  the  generally  prevailing  and  very  erroneous 
mode  of  estimating  the  values  of  the  increase  of  permanent  net  income  Irom 
land,  (as  ;will  be  made  manifest  in  a  part  of  this  essay — )  and  hut  few  even  of 
those  persons  who  have  obtained  such  values  by  marling  their  lands,  would  esti- 
mate them  at  one-fourth  of  their  true  amount,  'the  source  of  any  permanent 
net  increase  of  only  i}6  of  annual  income  from  land,  adds  .$100  to  the  intrinsic 
value  of  the  land.  Am!  this  proposition  is  not  the  less  true,  and  to  the  full  ex- 
tent asserted,  even  though  the  estimate  of  private  purchasers  and  sellers,  and  of 
public  assessors  of  lands,  may  all  count  for  the  market  price  but  a  small  propor- 
tion of  the  increased  real  value. 

Next— even  whatever  of  new  appreciation  the  foregoing  influences  might  have 
permitted  to  be  exhibited  in  the  increased  market  price  of  lands,  and  still  more 
their  new  real  value,  have  been  disguised,  or  altogether  concealed,  by  the  great 
and  frequent  fluctuations  of  all  market  prices  of  property,  and  by  the  general  mis- 
directions of  capital  and  industry,  all  caused  by  the  universal  individual  and  na- 
tional gambling  (whether  voluntary  or  compulsory,)  at  the  maddening  and  ruinous 


game  of  paner-muiiey  banking— lo  which  system  of  delusion  and  fraud  this  other- 
wise most  blessed  country  and  fortunate  people  are  indebti  I  foi  to  much  ol  disas- 
ter, loss,  and,  still  worse,  of  wide  spread  corruption  of  habits  and  morals.  The 
enormous  apparent  and  illusory  profits  promised  by  this  sj  sti  DO,  and  by  the  stock- 
jobbers who  alone  have  fattened  upon  the  facilities  it  ottered  for  fraud  and  plunder, 
served  powerfully  to  depress  the  market  price  of  lands  and  to  discourage  agri- 
cultural investments  ana  pursuits.  For,  whatever  actual  pn  G  rovement 
and  cultivation  ol  the  soil  might  ofTei  to  reward  the  care  and  I  proprie- 
tor, the  stocks  of  various  corporations,  falsely  appreciati  of  a  bloated 
paper  currency  and  by  the  arts  of  stockjobbers,  promised  much  higher  profits, 
without  requiring  either  care,  labor  or  risk.  line ,  1 1 1 < ■  higher  thai  fictitious  divi- 
dends of  profits  or  the  false  values  of  slocks  rose,  and  the  stronger  became  the 
inducements  to  make  stork  in  vestments,  the  more  the  prices  of  lands  sunk  (compa- 
ratively) below  their  true  value,  because  of  the  general  disposition  to  convert  land- 
ed capital  to  stock  capital.  But  the  real  and  solid  increase  of  income  and  of  wealth 
to  individuals  and  to  ihe  commonwealth,  caused  by  the  permanent  improvement 
of  the  soil,  is  not  the  less  certain,  or  the  less  profitable,  b  i  ause  fictitious  appre- 
ciations of  values,  caused  by  the  fraudulent  banking  system,  and  the  consequent 
speculations  and   madness  ol  its  votaries  and  victims,  have'  been   both  so  much 

higher  and  lower,  at  different  times,  as  to  make  the  amount  of  actual  improved 

values  appear  small  in  comparison,  even  if  they  were  not  thereby  entirely  con- 
cealed. Hut  these  delusive  and  ruinous  causes  of  flucl  and  values 
are  now  last  showing  their  emptiness,  and  vanishing  from  view  ;  and  whenever 
the  fraudulent  paper  system  shall  be  completely  exposed  and  entirely  exploded, 
then  both  lands  and  paper  money  system  will  be  estimated  at  their  true  value. 
May  the  consummation  be  speedy,  complete,  and  final! 

But  even  though,  if  properly  and  accurately  estimated,  the  true  value  of  the 
lands  already  marled  and  limed  in  Virginia  has  been  increased  to  the  amount  of 
some  millions  of  dollars,  the  gain  is  very  small  compared  to  that  which  yet  re- 
mains ready  to  be  obtained.  Marling  has  not  yet  been  extendi  d  over  the  hundredth 
part  of  the  surface  to  which  it  may  he  profitably  applied — and  liming  not  to  the 
ten-thousandih  part  of  the  lands  of  the  state  to  which  lime  may  be  brought. 
And  elsewhere,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  part  of  Maryland,  the  beginnings 
of  inarling  nulv  have  as  yet  been  made.     Neve,  beginnings  are  the 

widely  scattered  seeds  which  will  spring  up  and  spread,  and  herealter  yield  abun- 
dant harvests.  In  South  <  irolina,  l  le>  use  of  marl  has  been  at 
last  commenced  and  is  now  regularly  prosecuted  und  hich  offer  as- 
surance that  the  rich  resources  of  that  state,  in  calcareous  deposites,  will  not 
much  longer  be  permitted  to  lie  as  dead  capital,  of  which  the  value  was  not 
appreciated  or  known,  and  t lie  existence  scarcely  suspected  by  the  proprietors. 

In  preparing  this  new  edition,  the  author  has  endeavored  to  avail  himself  of 
all  recent  lights,  and  to  present  a  full  and  clear  view  of  the  general  subject,  as 
well  as  of  all  essential  details.  The  general  theoretical  opinions,  as  presented  in 
the  earlier  editions,  remain  unaltered,  and  of  course  the  facts  of  former  practice  ; 
but  in  regard  to  both,  while  preserving  the  same  substance,  the  treatment  has 
been  enlarged,  or  the  views  and  statement-  extended  Tor  better  illustration  and 
greater  clearness.  Whatever  of  other  parts  of  the  last  edition  could  be  well 
spared,  has  been  omitted;  and  much  ol  other  additional  and  new  matter  intro- 
duced. It  has  been  the  object  of  the  author  to  render  the  work  a  lull  and  suffi- 
cient guide  for  the  conduct  of  novices  in  marling  and  liming,  and  he  trusti  that 
he  has  not  fallen  very  far  short  of  attaining  that  object. 

December,  1842. 


ESS  A  \ 

O.N 

CALCAREOUS  MANURES. 


PART  FTRST— THEORY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GENERAL  DESCRIPTION  OK  EARTHS  AND  SOILS. 

It  is  very  necessary  that  we  should  correctly  distinguish  earths  and  sails 
and  their  many  varieties;  yet  these  terms  are  continually  misapplied — and, 
even  among  authors  of  hiurh  authority,  no  two  agree  in  their  definitions,  or 
modes  oft  classification.  Where  such  differences  exist,  and  no  one  known 
method  is  so  free  from  material  imperfections  as  to  be  referred  to  as  a  com- 
mon standard,  it  becomes  necessary  for  every  one  who  treats  of  soils  to 
define  for  himself— though  perhaps  be  is  (hereby  adding  to  the  general 
mass  of  confusion  already  existing.  This  necessity  must  be  my  apology 
for  whatever  is  new  or  unauthorized  in  the  following  definitions. 

The  earths  important  to  agriculture,  and  which  form  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  known  globe,  are  only  three— silicious,  abtmmous  and  calcareous. 

cms  earth,  in  its  state  of  absolute  purity,  forms  rock  crystal.  The 
whitest  and  purest  sand  may  be  considered  as  silicious  earth  in  agriculture, 
though  none  is  presented  by  nature  entirely  free  from  other  ingredients.  It 
is  composed  of  very  hard  particles,  not  soluble  in  any  common  acid,  and 
which  cannot  be  made  coherent  by  mixing  with  water.  Any  di 
coherence,  or  any  shade  of  color  that  sand  may  exhibit,  is  owing  to  the 
presence  of  other  substances.  The  solidity  of  the  particles  of  sand  renders 
them  impenetrable  to  water,  which  passes  betweea  them  as  through  a  sieve 
The  hardness  of  its  particles,  and  their  loose  arrangement,  make  sand  inca- 
pable of  absorbing  moisture  from  the  atmosphere,  or  of  retaining  any  valu- 
able vapor  or  fluid,  with  which  it  may  have  been  in  any  1.1  uii.'T  supplied. 
Silicious  earth  is  also  quickly  heated  by  the  sun,  which  adds  to  the  rapidity 
with  Which  it  loses  moisture. 

AJum&naus  or  argillaceous  earth,  when  d"ry,  adheres  to  the  tongue, ab- 
sorbs water  rapidly  and  abundantly,  and  when  wet  forms  a  tough  piste, 
smooth  and  soapy  to  the  touch.  By  burning,  it  becomes  as  hard  as  stone. 
Clays  derive  their  adhesiveness  from  their  proportion  o!  aluminous  earth. 
This  also  is  white  when  pure,  but  is  generally  colored  deeply  and  variously- 
red,  yellow,  or  blue — by  metallic  substaibes.  When  drying,  aluminous 
earth  shrinks  greatly,  and  becomes  a  mass  of  very  bard  lumps,  of  various 
sizes,' separated  by  cracks  and  fissures,  whii  h  become  so  many  little  reser- 
voirs of  standing  water  when   filled   by  rains,  and   remain  so,  until  the 


D.  H.  HILL  LIBRARY 
North  Carolina  State  College 


]4  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY. 

lumps,  by  slowly  imbibing  the  water,  are  distended  enough  to  till  the  space 
occupied  before. 

Calcareous  earth,  or  carbonate  of  lime,*  is  lime  combined  with  carbonic 
arid,  and  may  be  converted  into  pure  or  quick-lime  by  heat ;  and  quick-lime, 
by  exposure  to  the  air,  soon  returns  to  its  former  state  of  calcareous  earth. 
It  forms  marble,  limestone,  chalk,  and  shells,  with  very  small  admixtures  of 
other  substances.  Thus  the  term  calcareous  earth  will  not  be  used  here  to 
include  either  lime  in  its  pure  state,  or  any  of  the  numerous  combinations 
which  lime  forms  with  the  various  acids,  except  that  one  combination  (car- 
bonate of  lime)  which  is  beyond  comparison  the  most  abundant  throughout 
the  world,  and  most  important  as  an  ingredient  of  soils.  Pure  lime  attracts 
all  acids  so  powerfully,  that  it  is  never  presented  by  nature  except  in  com- 
bination with  some  one  of  them,  and  generally  with  the  carbonic  acid. 
When  this  compound  is  thrown  into  any  stronger  acid,  as  the  muriatic, 
nitric,  or  even  common  vinegar,  the  lime,  being  more  powerfully  attracted, 
unites  with  and  is  dissolved  by  the  stronger  acid,  and  lets  go  the  carbonic, 
which  escapes  with  effervescence  in  the  form  of  air.  In  this  manner,  the 
carbonate  of  lime,  or  calcareous  earth,  may  not  only  be  easily  distinguished 
from  silicious  and  aluminous  earth,  but  also  from  al!  other  combinations 
of  lime. 

The  foregoing  definition  of  calcareous  earth,  which  confines  that  term  to 
the  carbonate  of  lime,  is  certainly  liable  to  objections,  but  less  so  than  any 
other  designation.  It  may  at  first  seem  absurd  to  consider  as  one  of  the 
three  principal  earths  which  compose  soils,  one  only  of  the  many  combina- 
tions of  lime,  rather  than  either  pure  lime  alone,  or  lime  in  all  its  combina- 
tions. One  or  the  other  of  these  significations  is  adopted  by  the  highest 
authorities,  when  the  calcareous  ingredients  of  soils  are  described;  and  in 
either  sense,  the  use  of  this  term  is  more  conformable  with  scientific  ar- 
rangement, than  mine.  Yet  much  inconvenience  is  caused  by  thus  apply- 
ing the  term  calcareous  earth.  If  applied  to  lime,  it  is  to  a  substance  which 
is  never  found  existing  naturally,  and  which  will  always  be  considered  by 
most  persons  as  the  artificial  product  of  the  process  of  calcination,  and  as 
having  no  more  part  in  the  composition  of  natural  soils,  than  the  manures 
obtained  from  oil-cake,  or  pounded  bones.  It  is  equally  improper  to  include 
under  the  same  general  term  all  the  combinations  of  lime  with  the  fifty  or 
sixty  various  acids.  Two  of  these  compounds,  the  sulphate  and  the  phos- 
phate of  lime,  are  known  as  valuable  manures ;  but  they  exist  naturally  in 
soils  in  such  minute  quantities,  as  not  to  deserve  to  be  considered  as  impor- 
tant ingredients.  A  subsequent  part  of  this  essay  will  show  why  the  oxa- 
late of  lime  is  also  supposed  to  be  highly  valuable  as  a  manure,  and  far 
more  abundant.  Many  other  salts  of  lime  are  known  to  chemists;  but 
their  several  'qualities,  as  affecting  soils,  are  entirely  unknown — and  their 

*  Carbonate  of  lime  is  the  chemical  name  for  the  substance  formed  by  the  combination 
of  carbonic  acid  with  lime.  The  names  of  all  the  thousands  of  different  substances 
(neutral  salts)  which  are  formed  by  the  combination  of  each  of  the  many  acids  with 
each  of  the  various  earths,  alkalies,  and  metals,  are  formed  by  one  uniform  rule,  which 
is  as  simple,  and  easy  to  be  understood  and  remembered,  as  it  is  useful.  To  avoid  re- 
peated explanations  in  the  course  of  this  essay,  the  rule  will  now  be  stated  by  which 
these  compounds  are  named.  The  termination  of  the  name  ol  the  acid  is  changed  to  the 
syllable  ate,  and  then  prefixed  to  the  particular  earth,  alkali,  or  metal  with  which  the 
acid  is  united.  With  this  explanation,  any  reader  can  at  once  understand  what  is  meant 
by  each  of  some  thousands  of  terms,  none  of  which  might  have  been  heaid  of  before, 
and  which  (without  this  manner  of  being  named;  would  be  too  numerous  to  be  fixed  in 
the  most  retentive  memory.  Thus,  it  will  be  readily  understood  that  the  carbonate  of 
magnesia  is  a  compound  of  the  carbonic  acid  and  magnesia — the  sulphate  of  lime,  a.  com- 
pound of  sulphuric  acid  and  lime— the  sulphate  of  iron,  a  compound  of  sulphuric  acid 
and  iron — and  in  like  manner  for  all  other  terms  so  formed. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY.  15 

quantities  are  too  small,  and  their  presence  too  rare,  to  require  considera- 
tion. If  all  trje  numerous  different  combinations  of  lime,  having  perhaps 
as  many  various' and  unknown  properties,  had  not  been  excluded  by  my 
definition  of  calcareous  earth,  continual  exceptions  woi  en  neces- 

sary, to  avoid  stating  what  was  not  meant  The  carbonatt  ■</  time,  to 
which  I  have  confined  that  term,  though  only  one  of  many  existing  combina- 
tions, yet  in  quantity  and  in  importance,  as  an  ingredient  of  soils,  as  well  as 
a  part  of  the  known  portion  of  the  globe,  very  far  surpasses  all  the  others. 

But  even  if  calcareous  earth,  as  defined  and  limited,  is  admitted  to  be  the 
substance  which  it  is  proper  to  consider  as  one  of  the  throe  important  earths 
of  agriculture,  still  there  are  objections  to  its  name,  which  1  would  gladly 
avoid.  However  strictly  defined,  many  readers  will  attach  to  terms  such 
meanings  as  they  had  previously  understood  :  and  the  word  calcareous  has 
been  so  loosely  and  so  differently  applied  in  common  language,  and  in 
agriculture,  that  much  confusion  may  attend  its  use.  Anything  "  partaking 
of  the  nature  of  lime"  is  "  calcareous,"  according  to  Walker's  Dictionary ; 
Lord  Karnes  limits  the  term  to  pure  lime;*  Davyf  and  Sinclair}  include 
under  it  pure  lime  and  all  its  combinations;  and  KirwanJ  Roziei,"  and 
Young,;  whose  example  1  have  followed,  confine  the  name  calcareous  earth 
to  the  carbonate  of  lime.  Nor  can  any  other  term  be  substituted  without 
producing  other  difficulties.  Carhimat,-  a/  Km  would  be  precise,  and  it 
means  exactly  the  same  chemical  substance  ;  but  there  are  insuperable  ob- 
jections to  the  frequent  use  of  ohemieal  names  in  a  work  addressed  to  or- 
dinary readers.  (  halk,  or  shells,  or  mild  lime,  (or  what  had  been  quick-lime, 
but  which,  from  exposure  to  the  air,  had  again  become  carbonated,)  all  these 
are  the  same  chemical  substance;  but  none  of  these  names  would  serve, 
because  each  would  be  supposed  to  refer  to  such  certain  form  or  appear*' 
ance  of  calcareous  earth,  as  they  usually  expresa  If  I  could  hope  to  revive 
an  obsolete  term,  and  with  some  modification  establish  its  use  for  this  pur- 
posa,  I  would  call  this  earth  cols — and  from  it  derive  colxvng,  to  signify  the 
application  of  calcareous  earth,  in  any  form,  as  manure.  A  general  and 
definite  term  for  this  operation  is  much  wanting.  Liming,  marling,  applying 
drawn  ashes,  or  the  rubbish  of  old  buildings,  chalk,  or  limestone  gravel,  all 
these  operations  are  in  part,  and  some  of  them  entirely,  that  manuring  that 
I  would  thus  call  calxing.  Hut  because  their  names  are  different,  so  are 
their  effects  generally  considered— not  only  in  those  respects  where  differ. 
ences  really  exist,  but  in  those  where  they  are  precisely  alike. 

Calcareous  earth  in  its  different  forms  has  been  supposed  to  compose  as 
much  as  one  eighth  part  of  the  crust  of  the  globe.**  Very  extensive  plains 
in  France  and  England  are  of  chalk,  pure  enough  to  be  nearly  barren,  and 
to  prove  that  pure  calcareous  earth  would  be  entirely  so.  No  chalk  is  to 
be  found  in  our  country — and  it  is  only  from  European  authors  that  we 
can  know  any  thing  of  its  agricultural  characters,  when  nearly  pure,  or 
when  forming  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  surface  of  the  land.  The 
whiteness  of  chalk  repels  the  rays  of  the  sun,  while  its  loose  particles  per- 
mit water  to  pass  through,  as  easily  as  sand  ;ft  and  thus  calcareous  earth  is 
remarkable  for  possessin<j  same  of  the  worst  qualities  of  both   the  other 


•  Gentleman  Farmer,  page  2f>l,  (21   Edin   ed.) 

t  Agr.  Chem.  page   223. "(Phil.  r.l  of  1821.) 

t  Code  of  Agriculture,  page  134,  (Hartford  ert.   1818 

||  Kirwan  on  Manures,  eban   I 

^  "  Term" — Cours   Complet  d'Agriculture  Pratique. 

§  Young's  Essay  on  Manures,  cliap.  3. 

*•  Cleaveland's  Mineralogy — On  carbonate  of  lime. 

tf  Cours  Complet  d'Agricnlture,  etc.  par  I'Ahbe  Rozier — Art. 


]g  CALCAREOUS  MAM  HES— THEORY. 

earths,  and  which  it  serves  to  cure  in  them  (as  will  hereafter  be  shown) 
when  used  as  a  manure. 

Most  of  those  who  have  applied  chemistry  to  agriculture  consider  mag- 
nesia as  one  of  the  important  earths.*  Magnesia,  like  lime,  is  never  found 
pure,  but  always  combined  with  some  acid,  and  its  most  general  form  is 
the  carbonate  of  magnesia.  But  even  in  this,  its  usual  and  natural  state, 
it  exists  in  such  very  small  quantities  in  soils,  and  is  found  so  rarely,  that 
its  name  seems  a  useless  addition  to  the  lists  of  the  earths  of  agriculture. 
For  all  practical  purposes,  gypsum  (though  only  another  combination  of 
lime,)  would  more  properly  be  arranged  as  a  distinct  earth,  or  element  of 
soils,  as  it  is  found  in  far  greater  abundance  and  purity,  and  certainly  affects 
some  soils  and  plants  in  a  far  more  important  manner  than  has  yet  been 
attributed  to  magnesia  in  its  natural  form. 

Magnesia  (or,  more  properly  speaking,  the  carbonate  of  magnesia)  is 
here  treated  as  comparatively  unimportant  as  an  agricultural  earth,  be- 
cause of  its  being  rarely  found,  and  in  but  inconsiderable  quantities  in 
natural  soils,  and  being  unattainable  as  a  manure.  It  was  not  thereby  in- 
tended to  be  asserted  that  magnesia  would  not  be  important  as  an  ingre- 
dient of  soil  and  as  a  manure,  if  it  were  abundant  as  the  one,  or  at  command 
for  the  other.  From  the  great  similarity  in  chemical  properties  of  mag- 
nesia to  lime,  it  is  most  probable  that  their  action  in  soils  is  also  similar. 
The  alluvial  soil  of  the  Red-river  bottom,  in  Arkansas,  which  is  of  the 
highest  grade  of  fertility,  I  have  found  by  analysis  to  contain  between  one 
and  two  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  magnesia,  and  two  to  three  per  cent,  of 
carbonate  of  lime.  The  mud  deposited  by  the  floods  of  the  Nile,  and  which 
forms  the  celebrated  rich  soil  of  Egypt,  also  contains  carbonate  of  mag- 
nesia. (Lydl,  p.  223,  vol.  i.)  Yet  most  writers  have  deemed  magnesia  in 
soils  a  cause  of  sterility. 

All  the  earths,  when  as  pure  as  they  are  ever  furnished  by  nature,  are 
entirely  barren,  as  might  be  inferred  from  the  description  of  their  qualities; 
nor  would  any  addition  of  putrescent  manures!  enable  either  of  the  earths 
to  support  healthy  vegetable  life. 

The  mixture  of  the  three  important  earths  in  due  proportions  will  correct 
the  defects  of  all;  and  with  a  sufficiency  of  putrescent  animal  or  vegeta- 
ble matter,  soluble  in  water,  a  soil  is  formed,  in  which  plants  can  extend 
their  roots  freely,  yet  be  firmly  supported,  and  derive  all  their  needful  sup- 
plies of  air,  water  and  warmth,  without  being  oppressed  by  too  much  of 
either.  Such  is  the  natural  surfecaof  almost  all  the  habitable  world;  and 
though  the  qualities  and  values  of  soils  are  as  various  as  the  proportions  of 
their  ingredients  are  innumerable,  yet  they  arc  mostly  so  constituted  that 
no  one  earthy  ingredient  is  so  abundant  but  that  the  texture}  of  the  soil 
is  mechanically  suited  to  some  one  valuable  crop;  as  some  plants  require  a 
degree  of  closeness,  and  others  of  openness  in  the  soil,  which  would  cause 
other  plants  to  decline  or  perish. 

Soil  seldom  extends  more  than  a  (r-w  inches  below  the  surface,  as  on  the 
surface  only  are  received  those  natural  supplies  of  vegetable  and  animal 
matters,  which  are  necessary  to  constitute  soil.  Valleys  subject  to  inun- 
dation have  soils  brought  from  higher  lands,  and  deposited*  by  the  water, 

*  Davy's  Agricultural  Chemistry,  p.  110.  Phila.  ed.  1821. 

t  Putrescent  or  enriching  manures,  are  those  formed  of  vegetable  and  animal  matters, 
capable  of  putrefying,  and  thereby  furnishing  soluble  food  to  plants.  Farmyard  and 
stable  manure,  and  the  weeds  and  other  growth  of  the  fields  left  to  die  and  rot  on  them, 
are  almost  the  only  enriching  manures  that  have  been  used  as  yet  in  this  country. 

t  The  texture  of  a  soil  means  the  disposition  of  its  parts,  which  produces  such  sensi- 
ble qualities  as  being  close,  adhesive,  open,  friable,  Stc. 


I   a<  aki  OUS  mam  RES  -THEORY,  |7 

and  therefore  are  of  much  greater  depth.    Below  the  soil  is  the  subsoil, 

which  is  also  a  mixture  of  two  or  i •  earths,  mil  usually  isahnoel  as 

barren  as  each  of  the  unmixed  or  pure  earths,  because  it  contains  very 
little  putrescent  matter)  tl  tnta 

The  qualities  and  value  of  soils  depend  on  the  proportions  of  their  in- 
gredients. We  can  easily  comprehend  in  what  manner  sOidons  and 
aluminous  earths,  by  their  mixture,  serve  to  cure  tin-  defects  of  each  other ; 
the  open,  loose,  thirsty,  and  hot  nature  of  sand  being  corrected  by,  and 
correcting  in  turn,  the  close,  adhesive,  and  water-holding  qualities  of  alumi- 
nous earth.  This  curative  operation  is  merely  mechanical;  and  in  that 
manner  it  seems  likely  that  calcareous  earth,  when  in  large  proportions, 
also  acts,  and  aids  the  corrective  powers  of  both  the  other  earths.  This,  how- 
ever, is  only  supposition,  as  I  have  met  with  scarcely  any  such  natural  soil. 

lint  besides  the  mechanical  effects  of  calcareous  earth,  (which  perhaps 
are  weaker  than  those  of  the  other  two,)  that  earth  has  chemical  powers  far 
more  effectual  in  altering  the  texture  of  soils,  and  for  which  a  compara- 
tively small  quantity  is  amply  sufficient  The  chemical  action  of  calcareous 
earth,  as  an  ingredient  of  soils,  will  be  fully  treated  of  hereafter;  it  is  only 
mentioned  in  this  place  to  avoid  the  apparent  contradiction  which  might  be 
inferred,  if,  in  a  general  description  of  calcareous  earth,  I  had  omitted  all 
allusion  to  qualities  that  will  afterwards  be  brought  forward  as  all-important. 

Nothing  is  more  wanting  in  the  science  of  agriculture,  than  a  correct 
nomenclature  of  soils,  by  which  the  characters  nlight  be  learned  from  the 
names;  and  nothing  has  hitherto  seemed  less  attainable.  The  modes  of 
classing  and  naming  soils,  used  by  scientific  authors,  are  not  only  different, 
and  opposed  to  each  other,  but  each  one  of  them  is  quite  unfit  to  serve  the 
purpose  intended.  As  to  the  crowd  of  inferior  writers,  it  is  enough  to  say 
that  their  terms  are  not  fixed  by  any  rule,  convey  no  precise  meaning,  and 
are  worth  not  much  more  than  those  in  common  use  among  ourselves,  and 
other  practical  cultivators,  which  often  vary  in  their  meaning  within  forty 
miles  of  distance.  To  enable  us  to  judge  of  the  fitness  of  the  names  given 
to  soils  by  others,  let  us  examine  those  applied  by  ourselves.  We  gene- 
rally describe  soils  by  making  a  mental  comparison  with  those  we  are  most 
accustomed  to;  and  though  such  a  description  is  understood  well  enough 
through  a  particular  district,  it  may  have  quite  a  different  meaning  else- 
where. What  are  called  day  OT  stiff  soils,  In  Sussex  and  Southampton, 
would  be  considered  sandy  or  light  soils  in  Goochland— merely  because  al- 
most every  acre  <A~  land  in  the  Conner  counties  is  sandy,  and  in  the  latter. 
clays  are  nearly  as  abundant. 

The  conflict  of  definitions,  and  consequent  confusion  of  terms,  cannot  be 
more  plainly  set  forth,  than  by  quoting  from  some  of  the  highest  authorities, 
the  various  and  contradictory  explanations  of  a  term,  loam,  which  is  so 
common  that  it  is  used  by  every  one  who  writes  or  speaks  of  soils— and 
which,  in  some  one  or  other  sense,  each  writer  probably  considered 
ing  a  very  large,  if  not  the  greatest  proportion  of  the  cultivated  soils  of  his 
country,  and  of  the  world. 

"  /,0am  denotes  any  soil  moderately  cohesive,  and  more  so  than  loose 
chalk.  By  the  author  of  the  Body  of  Agriculture,  it  is  said  to  be  a  clay 
mixed  with  sand."     [Kirwanon  Manures — chap.  1.] 

••  Loam,  or  that  species  of  artificial  sail  into  which  the  others  are  gene, 
ally  brought  by  the  course  of  long  cultivation."—"  Where  a  soil  is  mode- 
rately cohesive,  less  tenacious  than  (lay,  and  more  so  than  sand,  it  is  known 
by  the  name  of  loam.  From  its  frequency,  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that 
in  some  cases  it  might  be  called  an  "  original  sott."  [Sinclair's  Code  of 
Aerriculture—chap,  I.] 


|8  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 

"  The  word  loam  should  be  limited  to  soils  containing  at  least  one  third 
of  impalpable  earthy  matter,  copiously  effervescing  with  adds."  [Davy* 
Agricultural  Chemistry — Lecture  4.]  According  to  this  definition  by  the 
most  scientific  writer  and  highest  authority  in  chemical  agriculture,  if  we 
except  the  small  portion  of  shelly  land,  there  is  certainly  not  an  acre  of 
natural  loam  between  the  sea-coast  of  Virginia  and  the  Blue  Ridge  moun- 
tains— and  very  few,  if  any,  even  in  the  limestone  region. 

"  By  loam  is  meant  any  of  the  earths  combined  with  decayed  animal  or 
vegetable  matter."     [Appendix  to  Agr.  Chem.  by  George  Sinclair.] 

"Loam — fat  unctuous  earth — marl."  [Johnson's  Dictionary,  Svo.  ed., 
and  also  Walker's."] 

"Loam  may  be  considered  a  clay  of  loose  or  friable  consistency,  mixed 
with  mica  or  isinglass,  and  iron  ochre."  [Editor  of  American  Farmer, 
vol.  Hi.,  page  320.] 

It  seems  most  proper  to  cla3s  and  name  soils  according  to  their  predo- 
minant earthy  ingredients,  by  which  term,  I  mean  those  ingredients  which 
exert  the  greatest  power,  and  most  strongly  mark  the  character  of  the  soil. 
The  predominant  ingredient  (in  this  sense,)  is  not  always  the  most  abun- 
dant, and  frequently  is  the  least.  If  the  most  abundant  were  considered  the 
predominant  ingredient,  and  gave  its  name  to  the  soil,*  then  almost  every 
one  should  be  called  silicious,  as  that  earth  is  seldom  equalled  in  quantity 
by  all  the  others  united.  If  the  earthy  parts  of  a  soil  were  two  thirds 
silicious,  and  one  third  Of  aluminous  earth,  the  peculiar  qualities  of  the 
smaller  ingredient  would  predominate  over  the  opposing  qualities  of  the 
sand,  and  the  mixture  would  be  a  tenacious  clay.  If  the  same  soil  had  con- 
tained only  one  twentieth  part  of  calcareous  earth,  that  ingredient  would 
have  had  more  marked  effects  on  the  soil,  than  could  have  been  produced 
by  either  doubling,  or  diminishing  to  half  their  quantity,  the  silicious  and 
aluminous  earths,  which  formed  the  great  bulk  of  the  soil.  If  soils  were 
named  according  to  certain  proportions  of  their  ingredients,  (as  proposed 
by  Davy,f)  a  correct,  though  limited  analysis  of  a  soil  would  be  required, 
before  its  name  or  character  could  be  given  ;  and  even  then  the  name  and 
character  would  often  disagree.  But  every  farmer  can  know  what  are  the 
most  marked  good  or  bad  qualities  of  his  soils,  as  shown  under  tillage,  and 
those  qualities  can  be  easily  traced  to  their  predominant  ingredients.  By 
compounding  a  few  terms,  various  shades  of  difference  may  be  designated 
with  sufficient  precision.  A  few  examples  will  be  sufficient  to  show  how 
all  may  be  applied  : — 

A  silicious  or  sandy  soil  has  such  a  proportion  of  silicious  earth  as  to 
show  more  of  its  peculiar  properties  than  those  of  any  other  ingredient.  It 
would  be  more  or  less  objectionable  for  its  looseness,  heat,  and  want  of 
power  to  retain  either  moisture  or  putrescent  manure— and  not  in  the  least 
for  toughness,  liability  to  become  hard  after  wet  ploughing,  or  any  other 
quality  of  aluminous  earth. 

In  like  manner,  an  aluminous  or  clayey  soil  would  show  most  strongly 
the  faults  of  aluminous  earth,  though  much  more  than  half  its  bulk  might 
be  of  silicious  earth. 

The  term  loam  is  not  essential  to  this  plan,  but  it  is  convenient,  as  it  will 
prevent  the  necessity  of  frequent  compounds  of  other  terms.  It  will  be 
used  for  all  soils  formed  with  such  proportions  of  sand  and  aluminous  earth, 
as  not  to  be  light  enough  to  be  called  sandy,  nor  stiff  enough  for  clay  soil. 
Sandy  loam  and  clayey  loam  would  express  its  two  extremes — and  loamy 

Which  is  the  plan  of  the  nomenclature  of  soils  proposed  by  Rozier.    See  article 
"  Terres,"  Cours  Complet  d'Agriculture,  etc.  t  Agr.  Chem.  p.  139. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY.  \Q 

send  would  be  still  lightei  than  the  former,  and  loamy  clmj  stiller  than  the 
latter. 

In  all  compound  names  of  soils,  the  last  term  should  be  considered  as  ex- 
preeaing  the  predominant  earthy  ingredient.    Thus,  a  tandy  bamg  calca- 

/  would  be  nearer  to  loam  than  sand,  and  more  marked  by  its  cal- 
i  .u«. his  ingredient  than  either.  Other  ingredients  of  soils,  besides  the 
eai  thai  ar  any  accidental  or  rare  quality  affecting  their  character  considera- 
bly,  may  be  described  with  sufficient  accuracy  by  such  additional  terms  as 
these — Si  ferruginous  graccllysilicioics  loam—ov  a  vegetable  calcareous  clay. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ON  THE  SOILS,  AND  STATE  Or  AGRICULTURE  OF  THE  TIDE-WATER  DISTRICT  Of 
VIRGINIA. 

"  During  several  days  of  our  journey,  no  spot  was  seen  that  was  not 

covered  with  a  luxuriant  growth  of  large  and  beautiful  forest  trees,  except 
where  they  had  been  destroyed  by  the  natives  for  the  purpose  of  cultiva- 
tion. The  least  fertile  of  their  pasture  lands,  without  seeding,  are  soon 
covered  with  grass  several  feet  in  height;  and  unless  prevented  by  cultiva- 
tion, a  second  growth  of  trees  rapidly, springs  up,  which,  without  care  or  at- 
tention, attain  their  giant  size  in  half  the  time  that  would  be  expected  on  the 
best  lands  in  England." 

If  the  foregoing  description  was  met  with  in  a  '  Journey  through  Cabul,' 
or  some  equally  unknown  region,  no  European  reader  would  doubt  but 
such  lands  were  fertile  in  the  highest  degree— and  many  even  of  ourselves 
would  receive  the  same  "impression.  Yet  it  is  no  exaggerated  account  of 
the  poorest  natural  soils  in  our  own  poor  country,  which  are  as  remarkable 
for  their  producing  luxuriant  growths  of  pines,  and  broom  grass,  as  for 
their  unproductiveness  in  every  cultivated  or  valuable  crop.  We  are  so  ac- 
customed to  these  facts,  that  we  scarcely  think  of  their  singularity  ;  nor  of 
the  impropriety  of  calling  any  land  barren,  which  will  produce  a  rapid  or 
heavy  growth  of  any  one  plant.  Indeed,  by  the  rapidity  of  that  growth, 
(or  the  fitness  of  the  soil  for  its  production,)  we  have  in  some  measure 
formed  a  standard  of  the  poverty  of  the  soil. 

With  some  exceptions  to  every  general  character,  the  tide-water  district 
of  Virginia  may  be  described  as  generally  level,  sandy,  poor,  and  free  from 
any  fixed  rock,  or  any  other  than  stones  rounded  apparently  by  the  attrition 
of  water.  On  much  the  greater  part  of  the  lands,  no  stone  of  any  kind  is 
to  be  found  of  larger  size  than  gravel.  Pines  of  different  kinds  form  the 
greater  part  of  a  heavy  cover  to  the  silicious  soils  in  their  virgin  state,  and 
mix  considerably  with  oaks  and  other  growth  of  clay  land.  Both  these 
kinds  of  soil,  after  being  exhausted  of  their  little  fertility  by  cultivation,  and 
"  turned  out"  to  recruit,  are  soon  covered  by  young  pines  which  grow  with 
vigor  and  luxuriance.  This  general  description  applies  more  particularly 
to  the  ridges  which  separate  the  slopes  on  different  streams.  The  ridge 
lands  are  always  level,  and  very  poor— sometimes  clayey,  more  generally 
sandy,  but  stiffer  than  would  be  inferred  from  the  proportion  of  silicious 
earth  they  contain,  which  is  caused  by  the  fineness  of  its  particles.  Whor- 
tleberry bushes,  as  well  as  pines,  are  abundant  on  ridge  lands— and  nume- 
rous shallow  basins  arc  found,  which  are  ponds  of  rain  water  in  winter, 
but  dry  in  summer.  None  of  this  large  proportion  of  our  lands  has  paid 
the  expense  of  clearing  and  cultivation,  and  much  the  greater  part  still  re- 


20  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 

mains  under  its  native  growth.  Enough,  however,  has  been  cleared  and 
cultivated  in  every  neighborhood  to  prove  its  utter  worthlessness  under 
common  management.  The  soils  of  ridge  lands  vary  between  sandy  loam 
and  clayey  loam.  It  is  difficult  to  estimate  their  general  product  under  cul- 
tivation ;  but  judging  from  my  own  experience  of  such  soils,  the  product 
may  be  from  five  bushels  of  corn,  or  as  much  of  wheat,  to  the  acre  on  the 
most  clayey  soils,  to  twelve  bushels  of  corn,  and  less  than  three  of  wheat, 
on  the  most  sandy— if  wheat  were  there  attempted  to  be  made. 

The  slopes  extend  from  the  ridges  to  the  streams,  or  to  the  alluvial  bot- 
toms, and  include  the  whole  interval  between  neighboring  branches  of  the 
same  stream.  This  class  of  soils  forms  another  great  body  of  lands,  of 
a  higher  grade  of  fertility,  though  still  far  from  valuable.  It  is  generally 
more  sandy  than  the  poorer  ridge  land,  and  when  long  cultivated  is  more 
or  less  deprived  of  its  soil,  by  the  washing  of  rains,  on  every  slight  declivity. 

The  washing  away  of  three  or  four  inches  in  depth  exposes  a  sterile 
subsoil,  (or  forms  a  "  gall,")  which  continues  thenceforth  bare  of  all  vegeta- 
tion. A  greater  declivity  of  the  surface  serves  to  form  gullies  several  feet 
in  depth,  the  earth  carried  from  which,  covers  and  injures  the  adjacent  lower 
land.  Most  of  this  kind  of  land  has  been  cleared  and  greatly  exhausted. 
Its  virgin  growth  is  often  more  of  oak,  hickory,  and  dogwood,  than  pine; 
but  when  turned  out  of  cultivation,  an  unmixed  growth  of  pine  follows. 
Land  of  this  kind  in  general  has  very  little  durability.  Its  best  usual  product 
of  corn  may  be,  for  a  few  crops,  eighteen  or  twenty  bushels  —and  even  as 
much  as  twenty-five  bushels,  from  the  highest  grade.  Wheat  is  seldom  a 
productive  or  profitable  crop  on  the  slopes,  the  soil  being  generally  too 
sandy.  When  such  soils  as  these  are  called  rich  or  valuable  (as  most  per- 
sons would  describe  them,)  those  terms  must  be  considered  as  only  com- 
parative; and  such  an  application  of  them  proves  that  truly  fertile  and 
valuable  soils  are  very  scarce  in  lower  Virginia. 

The  only  very  rich  and  durable  soils  below  the  falls  of  our  rivers  are 
narrow  strips  of  high-land  along  their  banks,  and  the  low-lands  formed  by 
the  alluvion  of  the  numerous  smaller  streams  which  water  our  country. 
These  alluvial  bottoms,  though  highly  productive,  are  lessened  in  value  by 
being  generally  too  sandy,  and  by  the  damage  they  suffer  from  being  often 
inundated  by  floods  of  rain.  The  best  high-land  soils  seldom  extend  more 
than  half  a  mile  from  the  river's  edge — sometimes  not  fifty  yards.  These 
irregular  margins  are  composed  of  loams  of  various  qualities,  but  all  highly 
valuable;  and  the  best  soils  are  scarcely  to  be  surpassed  in  their  original 
fertility,  and  durability  under  severe  tillage.  Their  nature  and  peculiarities 
will  be  again  adverted  to,  and  more  fully  described  hereafter. 

The  simple  statement  of  the  general  course  of  tillage  to  which  this  part 
of  the  country  has  been  subjected  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  great  impover- 
ishment of  the  soil  has  been  the  inevitable  consequence.  The  small  portion 
of  rich  river  margins,  was  soon  all  cleared,  and  was  tilled  without  cessation 
for  many  years.  The  clearing  of  the  slopes  was  next  commenced,  and  is 
not  yet  entirely  completed.  On  these  soils,  the  succession  of  crops  was  less 
rapid,  or,  from  necessity,  tillage  was  sooner  suspended.  If  not  rich  enough 
for  tobacco  when  first  cleared,  (or  as  soon  as  it  ceased  to  be  so,)  land  of 
this  kind  was  planted  in  corn  two  or  three  years  in  succession,  and  after- 
wards every  second  year.  The  intermediate  year  between  the  crops  of 
corn,  the  field  was  "  rested"  under  a  crop  of  wheat,  if  it  would  produce 
four  or  five  bushels  to  the  acre.  If  the  sandiness,  or  exhausted  condition 
of  the  soil,  denied  even  this  small  product  of  wheat,  that  crop  was  pro- 
bably not  attempted;  and,  instead  of  it,  the  field  was  exposed  to  close 
grazing,  from  the  time  of  gathering  one  crop  of  corn,  to  that  of  preparing 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES- THEORY.  21 

to  plant  another.  No  manure  was  applied,  except  on  the  tobacco  lots; 
ami  this  succession  of  a  grain  crop  every  ye.ir,  ami  afterwards  every 
second  year,  was  kept  up  as  long  as  the  field  would  proline  live  bushels  of 
corn  to  the. ii ■  i  a  U;»ii  reduced  below  that  product,  ami  to  still  more  below 
the  necessary  expense  of  cultivation,  the  land  was  turned  out  to  recover  under 
a  new  growth  of  pines.  After  twenty  or  thirty  years,  according  to  the 
convenience  of  the  owner,  the  same  land  would  be  again  cleared,  and  put 
under  similar  scourging  tillage,  which,  however,  would  then  much  sooner 
end,  as  before,  in  exhaustion.  Such  a  general  system  is  not  yet  every 
where  abandoned;  and  many  years  have  not  passed,  since  such  was  the 
usual  course  on  almost  every  farm. 

How  much  our  country  has  hern  impoverished  during  the  last  fifty  years, 
cannot  be  determined  by  any  satisfactory  testimony.  But,  however  we 
may  differ  on  this  head,  there  are  but  few  who  will  not  concur  in  the 
opinion,  that  [up  to  1831]  our  system  of  cultivation  has  hern  every  year  les- 
sening the  productive  power  of  our  lands  in  general— and  that  no  one  county, 
no  neighborhood,  and  but  few  particular  farms,  have  been  at  all  enriched, 
since  their  fust  settlement  and  cultivation.  Yet  many  of  our  farming  ope- 
rations have  been  much  improved  and  made  more  productive.  Driven 
by  necessity,  proprietors  direct  more  personal  attention  to  their  farms— better 
implements  of  husbandry  arc  used —every  process  is  more  perfectly  per- 
formed—and, whether  well  or  ill  directed,  a  spirit  of  inquiry  and  enterprise 
has  been  awakened,  which  before  had  no  existence. 

Throughout  the  country  below  the  tails  of  the  river,  and  perhaps  thirty 
miles  above,  if  the  best  land  be  excluded,  say  one  tenth,  the  remaining  nine 
tenths  will  not  yield  an  average  product  of  ten  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre  . 
though  that  grain  is  best  suited  to  our  soils  in  general,  and  far  exceeds  in 
quantity  all  other  kinds  raised.  Of  course,  the  product  of  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  land  would  fall  below  this  average.  Such  crops,  in  very  many 
00868,  cannot  remunerate  the  cultivator.  If  our  remaining  wood-land  could 
he  at  once  brought  into  cultivation,  the gTOM  product  of  the  country  would 
be  greatly  inc  reased,  but  the  net  product  very  probably  diminished  ;  as  the 
genera]  poverty  of  these  lands  would  cause  more  expense  than  profit  to 
accompany  their  cultivation  under  the  usual  system.  Yet  every  year  we 
are  usintr  all  our  exertions  to   dear  wood-land,  and   in  lad  seldom   increase 

either  net  or  gross  products  — because  nearly  as  much  old  exhausted  land 

is  turned  out  of  cultivation  as  is  substituted  by  the  newly  cleared     Sound 

calculations  of  profit  and   loss,  would  induce  us   even  greatly  to   reduce  the 

extent  of  our  present  cultivation,  in  lower  Virginia,  by  turning  out  and 
leaving  waste,  (if  not  to  be  improved.)  every  acre  that  yields  less  than  the 
total  cost  of  its  tillage.* 

No  political  troth  is  better  established  than  that  tin-  population  of  every 

country  will  increase,  or  diminish,  according  to  its  regular  supply  of  I L 

We  know  from  the  census  of  1880,  compared  with  those  of  1820  and 
18  10,  that  our  population  is  nearly  .stationary,  and  in  some  counties  Is  ac- 
tually lesseninir:  and  therefore  it  is  certain  thai    to  Ifi  ir  agricultureis 

not  increasing  the  amount ol  food,  or  the  meat  ag  food— with  all 

--im.hu  e  of  the  new  land  annually  brought  under  culture.    In  these  eir* 

•The  Rftegoine  description  w.i-  written   In  1826,  and   lirsl  publ  If    l.  and 

particular  exceptions  to  the  geneml  tlien 

''•■■I  j  .in.! .  uiih  the  p 

• "  becomii  I  more,  important,  anil  in  a  rapidly  inert 

These  i  .!  I  inda  and  increased  production,  as  well  as  theii  peculiar 

causes,  will  b  ibsequenth  .    Tl 1  ■  .,  „t«i 

in  the  remainder  of  this  cba|  ,   g  statements) 

on  which  they  aie  lunnded. 

I 


22  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 

cumstances,  a  surplus  population,  with  all  its  deplorable  consequences,  is 
only  prevented  by  the  great  current  of  emigration  which  is  continually 
flowing  westward.  No  matter  who  emigrates,  or  with  what  motive — the 
enterprising  or  wealthy  citizen  who  leaves  us  to  seek  richer  lands  and 
greater  profits,  and  the  slave  sold  and  carried  away  on  account  of  his 
owner's  poverty — all  concur  in  producing  the  same  result,  though  with  very 
different  degrees  of  benefit  to  those  who  remain.  If  this  great  and  con- 
tinued drain  from  our  population  was  stopped,  and  our  agriculture  was  not 
improved,  want  and  misery  would  work  to  produce  the  same  results. 
Births  would  diminish,  and  deaths  would  increase;  and  hunger  and  disease, 
operating  here  as  in  other  countries,  would  keep  down  population  to  that 
number  that  the  average  products  of  our  agricultural  and  other  productive 
labor  could  feed,  and  supply  with  the  other  necessary  means  for  living. 

A  stranger  to  our  situation  and  habits  might  well  oppose  to  my  state- 
ments the  very  reasonable  objection,  that  no  man  would,  or  could,  long  pur- 
sue a  system  of  cultivation  of  which  the  returns  fell  short  of  his  expenses, 
including  rent  of  land,  hire  of  labor,  interest  on  the  necessary  capital,  &c. 
Very  true ;  if  he  had  to  pay  those  expenses  out  of  his  profits,  he  would 
soon  be  driven  from  his  farm  to  a  jail.  But  we  own  our  land,  our  laborers, 
and  stock;  and  though  the  calculation  of  net  profit,  or  of  loss,  is  precisely 
the  same,  yet  we  are  not  ruined  by  making  only  two  per  cent,  on  our  capi- 
tal, provided  we  can  manage  to  live  on  that  income.  If  we  live  on  still 
less,  we  are  actually  growing  richer,  (by  laying  up  a  part  of  our  two  per 
cent.,)  notwithstanding  the  most  clearly  proved  regular  loss  on  our  farming. 

Our  condition  has  been  so  gradually  growing  worse,  that  we  are  either 
not  aware  of  the  extent  of  the  evil,  or  are  in  a  great  measure  reconciled 
by  custom  to  profitless  labor.  No  hope  for  a  better  state  of  things  can  be 
entertained,  until  we  shake  off  this  apathy — this  excess  of  contentment, 
which  makes  no  effort  to  avoid  existing  evils.  I  have  endeavored  to  ex- 
pose what  is  worst  in  our  situation  as  farmers ;  if  it  should  have  the  effect 
of  arousing  any  of  my  countrymen  to  a  sense  of  the  absolute  necessity  of 
some  improvement,  to  avoid  ultimate  ruin,  1  hope  also  to  point  out  to  some 
of  their  number,  if  not  to  all,  that  the  means  for  certain  and  highly  profitable 
improvements  are  completely  within  their  reach. 

The  cultivators  of  eastern  Virginia  derive  a  portion  of  their  income  from 
a  source  quite  distinct  from  their  tillage — and  which,  though  it  often  forces 
them  to  persist  in  their  profitless  farming,  yet  also,  in  some  measure,  con- 
ceals, and  is-  generally  supposed  to  compensate  for  its  losses.  This  source 
of  income  is,  the  breeding  and  selling  of  slaves ;  of  which,  '(though  the 
discussion  of  this  point  will  not  be  undertaken  here.)  1  cannot  concur  in  the 
general  opinion  that  it  is  also  a  source  of  profit. 

It  is  not  meant  to  convey  the  idea  that  any  person  undertakes  as  a  re- 
gular business  the  breeding  of  slaves  with  a  view  to  their  sale;  but  whether 
it  is  so  intended  or  not,  all  of  us,  without  exception,  are  acting  some  part  in 
aid  of  a  general  system,  which  taken  altogether  is  precisely  what  I  have 
named.  No  man  is  so  inhuman  as  to  breed  and  raise  slaves,  to  sell  off  a 
certain  proportion  regularly,  as  a  western  drover  does  with  his  herds  of 
cattle.  But  sooner  or  later  the  general  result  is  the  same.  Sales  may  be 
made  voluntarily,  or  by  the  sheriff— they  may  be  met  by  the  first  owner, 
or  delayed  until  the  succession  of  his  heirs— or  the  misfortune  of  being  sold 
may  fall  on  one  parcel  of  slaves,  instead  of  another ;  but  all  these,  are  but 
different  ways  of  arriving  at  the  same  general  and  inevitable  result.  With 
plenty  of  wholesome  though  coarse  food,  and  under  such  mild  treatment 
as  our  slaves  usually  experience,  they  have  every  inducement  and  facility 
to  increase  their  numbers  with  all  possible  rapidity,  without  any  opposing 


C  LLCARE01  8  MANl  RES    THEORY  J3 

check,  either  prudential,  moral,  "i  physical  These  several  checks  to  th«- 
increase  of  population  operate  more  or  leas  on  all  free  persons,  whether  rich 

or  p ;  and  slaves,  situated  as  oars  are,  perhaps  are  placed  in  the  only 

possible  circumstances  Id  which  no  restraint  whatever  obstructs  the  pro- 
pagation and  Increase  of  the  race;  From  the  general  existence  of  this 
state  of  circumstances,  the  particular  effects  maybe  naturally  deduced; 
and  facta  completely  accord  with  what  these  circumstances  promise,  A 
ping  of  slaves  on  a  farm  will  often  increase  to  four  times  their  original 
number,  in  thirty  or  forty  years.  If  a  farmer  is  only  able  to  food  and 
maintain  his  slaves,  their  increase  in  value  may  double  the  whole  of  his 
capital  originally  vested  in  farming,  before  he  closes  the  term  of  an  ordinary 
life.  But  few  farms  are  able  to  support  this  increasing  expense,  and  also 
furnish  the  necessary  supplies  to  the  family  of  the  owner ;  whence  very 
many  owners  of  large  estates,  in  lands  and  negroeS,  are  throughout  their 
lives  too  poor  to  enjoy  the  comforts  of  wealth,  or  to  encounter  the  expenses 
necessary  to  improve  their  unprofitable  fanning.  A  man  so  situated,  may 
be  said  to  be  a  slave  to  his  own  slaves.  If  the  owner  is  industrious  and 
frugal,  he  may  be  able  to  support  the  increasing  number  of  his  slaves,  and 
to  bequeath  them  undiminished  to  his  children.  But  the  income  of  few 
persons  increases  as  fast  as  their  slaves;  and  if  not,  the  consequence  must 
be,  that  some  of  them  will  be  sold,  that  the  others  may  be  supported  ;  and 
the  sale  of  more  is  perhaps  afterwards  compelled,  to  pay  debts  incurred  in 
striving  to  put  off  that  dreaded  alternative.  The  slave  first  almost  starves 
his  master,  and  at  last  is  eaten  by  him — at  least  he  is  exchanged  for  his 
value  in  food.  The  sale  of  slaves  is  always  a  severe  trial  to  their  owner. 
Obstacles  are  opposed  to  it,  not  only  by  sentiments  of  humanity  and  of  re- 
gard for  those  who  have  passed  their  lives  in  his  service — but  every  feeling 
be  has  of  false  shame  comes  to  aid  ;  and  such  sales  are  generally  postponed 
until  compelled  by  creditors,  and  are  carried  into  effect  by  the  sheriff,  or  by 
the  administrator  of  the  debtor.  But  when  the  sale  finally  takes  place,  its 
magnitude  makes  up  for  all  previous  delays.  Do  what  we  will,  the  surplus 
slaves  vutst  be  sent  out  of  a  country  which  is  not  able  to  feed  them ;  and 
these  causes  continue  to  supply  the  immense  numbers  that  are  annually  sold 
and  carried  away  from  lower  Virginia,  without  even  producing  the  poli- 
tical benefit  of  lessening  the  actual  number  remaining.  Nothing  can  check 
this  forced  emigration  of  blacks,  and  the  voluntary  emigration  of  whites, 
except  increased  production  of  food,  obtained  by  enriching  our  lands,  and 
the  consequent  increase  of  farming  profits,  No  effect  will  more  certainly 
follow  its  cause  than  this—  that  whenever  our  land  is  so  improved  as  to 
produce  double  its  present  supply  of  food,  it  will  also  have,  and  will  retain, 
double  its  present  amount  of  population.  The  improving  farmer  who  adds 
one  hundred  bushels  of  corn  to  the  previous  product  of  his  country,  also 
effectually  adds,  and  permaaently,  to  its  population,  as  many  persons  as 
his   increase  of  product  will  feed  and  support. 


CH  \PTER  III. 

THE  DIFFERENT  CAPACITIES  OF  SOILS  FOR  RECEIVING  IMPROVEMENT. 

As  far  as  the  nature  of  the  subjects  permitted,  the  foregoing  chapters 
have  been  merely  explanatory  and  descriptive.  The  same  subjects  will  be 
resumed  and  more  fully  treated  in  the  course  of  the  following  general  argu- 
ment, the  premises  of  which  are  the  facts  and  circumstances  that  have  been 


0^  CALCAREl-Us  MANURES-THEORY. 

detailed.  The  object  of  this  essay  wiU  now  be  entered  upon:  and  what  is 
desired  to  be  proved  will  be  stated  in  a  series  of  propositions,  which  will 
now  be  presented  at  one  view,  and  afterwards  separately  discussed  in 
their  proper  order. 

Proposition  1.  Soils  naturally  poor,  and  rich  soils  reduced  to  poverty  by 
cultivation,  are  essentially  different  in  their  powers  of  retaining  putrescent 
(or  alimentary)  manures ;  and.  under  like  circumstances,  the  fitness  of 
any  soil  to  be  enriched  by  these  manures  is  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
its  natural  fal 

2d.  The  natural  sterility  of  the  soils  of  lower  Virginia  is  caused  by  such 
soils  being  destitute  of  caicareous  earth,  and  their  being  injured  by  the  pre- 
sence and  effects  of  vegetable  acid. 

3d.  The  fertilizing  effects  of  calcareous  earth  are  chiefly  produced  by  its 
power  of  neutralizing  acids,  and  of  combining  putrescent  manures  with 
soils,  between  which  there  would  otherwise  be  but  little  if  any  chemical 
attraction.* 

4th.  Poor  and  acid  soils  cannot  be  improved  durably,  or  profitably,  by  pu- 
trescent manures,  without  previously  making  such  soils  calcareous,  and 
thereby  correcting  the  natural  defect  in  their  constitution. 

5th.  Calcareous  manures  will  give  to  our  worst  soils  a  power  of  retaining 
putrescent  manures,  equal  to  that  of  the  best  —and  will  cause  more  produc- 
tiveness, and  yield  more  profit,  than  any  other  improvement  practicable  in 
lower  Virginia. 

Dismissing  from  consideration,  for  the  present,  all  the  others,  I  shall  pro- 
ceed to  maintain  the 

First  Propositiox.  — Soils  naturally  poor,  and  rich  toil*  reduced  to  pocerty 
by  cultivation,  are  essentially  different  in  th<ir  powers  of  retaining-  putres- 
cent {or  alimentary)  manures  ;  and,  under  like  circumstances,  thejitness  of 
any  soil  to  be  enriched  by  these  manures  is  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
its  natural  fertility. 

The  natural  fertility  of  a  soil  is  not  intended  to  be  estimated  by  the 
amount  of  its  earliest  product,  when  first  brought  under  cultivation,  be- 
cause several  temporary  causes  then  operate  either  to  keep  down  or  to 
augment  the  product  If  land  be  cultivated  immediately  after  the  trees  are 
cut  down,  the  crop  is  greatly  lessened  by  the  numerous  living  roots,  and 
consequent  bad  tillage — by  the  excess  of  unrotted  vegetable  matter — and  the 
coldness  of  the  soil,  from  which  the  rays  of  the  sun  had  been  so  long  ex- 
cluded. On  the  other  hand,  if  cultivation  is  delayed  one  or  two  years,  the 
leaves  and  other  vegetable  matters  are  rotted,  and  in  the  best  state  to  sup- 
ply food  to  plants,  and  are  so  abundant  that  a  far.  better  crop  will  be  raised 
than  could  have  been  obtained  before,  or  perhaps  can  be  again,  without  ma- 
nure.    For  these  reasons,  the  degree  of  natural  fertility  of  any  soil  should 

*  When  any  substance  is  mentioned  as  combining  with  oae  or  more  other  substances,  as 
liifferent  manures  with  each  other,  or  with  soil.  1  mean  that  a  union  is  formed  by  che- 
mical attraction,  and  nc.  (tare.  Milium  are  made  by  mechanical  means, 
and  may  be  separated  in  like  manner :  bat  combinations  are  chemical,  and  require  some 
stronger  chemical  attraction,  to  take  away  either  of  the  bodies  so  ul 

:ao  substances  combine,  they  both  lose  their  previous  peculiar  qualities,  or 
:nem  for  each  other,  and  form  a  third  substance  different  from  both.  Thus,  if 
certain  known  proportions  of  muriatic  acid  and  pure  or  caustic  soda  be  brought  together, 
their  strong  attraction  will  cause  them  to  combine,  immediately.  The  strong  corrosire 
acid  quality  of  the  one.  and  the  equally  peculiar  alkaline  taste  and  powers  of  the  other, 
will  neutralize  or  entirely  destroy  each  other — and  the  compound  formed  is  common 
table  salt,  the  qualities  of  which  are  as  strongly  marked,  but  totally  different  Irom 
those  of  either  of  its  constirutent  parts 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY  gg 

be  measured  i>y  its  products  after  the  causes  have  ceased  ii> 

act,  whii'h  will  generally  take  place  before  the  third  or  fourth  crop  is  ob- 
tained. According,  then,  to  this  definition,  a  certain  degree  of  p<  rmant  my 
in  its  early  productiveness  is  necessary  to  entitle  a  soil  to  be  termed  na- 
turally  fertile.  It  is  In  this  .sense  thai  I  deny  to  any  poor  lands,  except  such 
as  were  naturally  fertile,  the  capacity  of  being  made  rich  by  putrescent 

manures  only. 

The  foregoing  proposition  would  by  many  persons  be  so  readily  admitted 
as  true,  that  attempting  to  prove  it  would  be  deemed  entirely  superfluous: 
Bui  many  others  will  as  strongly  deny  its  truth,  andean  support  their  op- 
position by  high  agricultural  authorities. 

General  readers,  who  may  have  no  connexion  with  farming,  must  have 
gathered  from  the  Incidental  notices  in  various  literary  ami  descriptive 
works,  that  some  countries  or  districts  that  were  noted  for  their  uncommon 
fertility  or  barrenness,  as  far  hack  as  any  accounts  of  them  have  been  re- 
corded, still  retain  the  same  general  character,  through  every  change  of 
culture,  government,  and  even  of  races  of  inhabitants.  They  know  that, 
for  some  centuries  at  least,  there  has  been  no  change  in  the  Btrong  contrast 
between  the  barrenness  of  Norway,  Brandenburg,  and  the  Highlands  of 
Scotland,  and  the  fertility  of  Flanders,  Lombardy  and  Valencia.  Sicily, 
notwithstanding  its  government  is  calculated  to  discourage  industry,  and 
production  of  every  profitable  kind,  still  exhibits  that  fertility  for  which  it 
was  celebrated  two  thousand  years  ago.  It  seems  a  necessary  inference 
from  the  many  statements  of  which  these  are  examples,  that  the  labors  of 
man  have  been  but  of  little  avail  in  altering,  generally  or  permanently,  or  in 
any  marked  degree,  the  characters  anil  qualities  given  to  soils  by  nature. 

Most  of  our  experienced  practical  cultivators,  through  a  different  course, 
have  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion.  Their  practice  has  taught  them  the 
truth  of  this  proposition  ;  and  the  opinions  thus  formed  have  profitably  di- 
rected their  most  important  operations.  They  arc  accustomed  to  estimate 
the  worth  of  land  by  its  natural  degree  of  fertility  ;  and  by  the  same  rule 
they  arc  directed  on  what  soils  to  bestow  their  scanty  stock  of  manure,  and 
where  to  expect  exhausted  fields  to  recover  by  rest,  and  their  own  unas- 
sisted powers,  Hut,  content  with  knowing  the  fact,  this  useful  class  of  farm- 
ers have  never  Inquired  for  its  cause;  and  even  their  opinions  on  this  subject, 
as  on  most  others,  have  not  been  communicated  so  as  to  benefit  others. 

But  if  all  literary  men,  who  are  not  farmers,  and  all  practical  cultivators, 
who  seldom  read,  admitted  the  truth  of  my  proposition,  it  would  avail  but 
little  for  improving  our  agricultural  operations;  and  the  only  prospect  of  its 
being  usefully  disseminated  is  through  that  class  of  farmers  who  have  re- 
ceived their  first  opinions  of  Improving  soils  from  books,  and  whose  subse- 
quent plans  and  practices  have  grown  out  of  those  opinions.  If  poor  na- 
tural soils  cannot  be  durably  or  profitably  improved  by  putrescent  manures, 
this  truth  should  not  only  be  known,  but  be  kept  constantly  in  view,  by 
every  farmer  who  can  hope  to  improve  with  success.  Yet  it  is  a  remarka- 
ble fact,  that  the  difference  in  the  capacities  of  soils  for  receiving  improve- 
ment has  not  attracted  the  attention  of  scientific  farmers;  and  the  doctrine 
has  no  direct  and  positive  support  from  the  author  of  any  treatise  on  agri- 
culture, European  or  American,  that  I  have  been  able  to  consult.  On  the 
contrary,  it  seems  to  be  considered  by  all  of  them,  that  to  collect  and  apply 
as  much  vegetable  and  animal  manure  as  possible,  is  sufficient  to  ensure 
profit  to  every  farmer,  and  fertility  to  every  soil.  They  do  not  tell  US  that 
numerous  exceptions  to  that  rule  will  be  found,  and  that  many  soils  of  ap- 
parently good  texture,  if  not  incapable  of  being  enriched  from  the  barn- 
yard, would  at  least  cans.'  e  loss  than  clear  pro/it.  by  being  Improved 

from  that  source. 


D.  H.  HILL  LIBRARY 
North  Carolina  State  College 


26  CALCAREOUS  MANURES -THEORY 

When  it  is  assumed  that  the  silence  of  every  distinguished  author  as  to 
certain  soils  being  incapable  of  being  profitably  enriched,  amounts'  to  igno- 
rance of  the  fact,  or  a  tacit  denial  of  its  truth — it  may  be  objected  that  the 
exception  was  not  omitted  from  either  of  these  causes,  but  because  it  was 
established  and  undoubted.  This  is  barely  possible;  but  even  if  such  were 
the  case,  their  silence  has  had  all  the  ill  consequences  that  could  have  grown 
out  of  a  positive  denial  of  any  exceptions  to  the  propriety  of  manuring 
poor  soils.  Every  zealous  young  farmer,  who  draws  most  of  his  know- 
ledge and  opinions  from  books,  adopts  precisely  the  same  idea  of  their  di- 
rections— and  if  he  owns  barren  soils  he  probably  throws  away  his  labor 
and  manure  for  their  improvement,  for  years,  before  experience  compels 
him  to  abandon  his  hopes,  and  acknowledge  that  his  guides  have  led  him 
only  to  failure  and  loss.  Such  farmers  as  I  allude  to,  by  their  enthusiasm 
and  spirit  of  enterprise,  are  capable  of  rendering  the  most  important  bene- 
fits to  agriculture.  Whatever  may  be  their  impelling  motives,  the  public 
derives  nearly  all  the  benefit  of  their  successful  plans ;  and  their  far  more 
numerous  misdirected  labors,  and  consequent  disappointments,  are  produc- 
tive of  national,  still  more  than  individual  loss.  The  occurrence  of  only  a 
few  such  mistakes,  made  by  reading  farmers,  will  serve  to  acquit  me  of 
combating  a  shadow — and  there  are  few  of  us  who  cannot  recollect  some 
such  examples. 

But  if  the  foregoing  objection  has  any  weight  in  justifying  European 
authors  in  not  naming  this  exception,  it  can  have  none  for  those  of  our  own 
country.  If  it  is  admitted  that  soils  naturally  poor  are  incapable  of  being 
enriched  with  profit,  that  admission  must  cover  three  fourths  of  all  the  high- 
land in  the  tide-water  district.  Surely  no  one  will  contend  that  so  sweep- 
ing an  exception  was  silently  understood  by  the  author  of  '  Arator,'  as 
qualifying  his  exhortations  to  improve  our  lands :  and  if  no  such  exception 
were  intended  to  be  made,  then  will  his  directions  for  enriching  soils  and  his 
promises  of  reward  be  found  equally  fallacious,  for  the  greater  portion  of 
the  country  for  the  benefit  of  which  his  work  was  especially  intended.  The 
omission  of  any  such  exception,  by  the  writers  of  the  United  States,  is  the 
more  remarkable,  as  the  land  has  been  so  recently  brought  under  cultiva- 
tion, that  the  original  degree  of  fertility  of  almost  every  farm  may  be 
known  to  its  owner,  and  compared  with  the  after  progress  of  exhaustion 
or  improvement. 

Many  authorities  might  be  adduced  to  prove  that  I  have  correctly  stated 
what  is  the  fair  and  only  inference  to  be  drawn  from  agricultural  books, 
respecting  the  capacity  of  poor  soils  to  receive  improvement.  But  a  few 
of  the  most  strongly  marked  passages  in  'Arator'  will  be  fully  sufficient  for 
this  purpose.  The  venerated  author  of  that  work  was  too  well  acquainted 
with  the  writings  of  European  agriculturists,  to  have  mistaken  their  doc- 
trines in  this  important  particular.  A  large  portion  of  his  useful  life  was 
devoted  to  the  successful  improvement  of  exhausted,  but  originally  fertile 
lands.  His  instructions  for  producing  similar  improvement's  are  expressly 
addressed  to  the  cultivators  of  the  eastern  parts  of  Virginia  and  North  Ca- 
rolina, and  are  given  as  applicable  to  all  our  soils,  without  exception.  Con- 
sidering all  these  circumstances,  the  conclusions  which  are  evidently  and 
unavoidably  deduced  from  his  work,  may  be  fairly  considered,  not  only  as 
supported  by  his  own  experience,  but  as  concurriiii:  with  the  general  doc- 
trine of  improving  poor  soils,  maintained  by  previous  writers. 

At  page  54,  third  edition  of  '  Arator,'  "  inclosing"  (i.  e.  leaving  fields  to 
receive  their  own  vegetable  cover,  for  their  improvement,  during  the  years 
of  rest)  is  said  to  be  "  the  most  powerful  means  of  fertilizing  the  earth" 
— and  the  process  is  declared  to  be  rapid,  the  returns  near,  and  the  gain 
great. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY.  27 

Page  61.  "If  these  few  means  of  fertilizing  the  country  [corn-stalks, 
straw,  and  animal  dung,]  were  skilfully  used,  they  would  of  themselves 
suffice  to  change  its  state  from  sterility  to  fruitfulnees."— "By  the  litter  of 
Indian  corn,  and  of  small  grain,  and  of  penning  cattle,  managed  with  only 
an  interior  degree  Of  skill,  in  union  with  inclosing,  1  will  venture  to  affirm 
that  a  (arm  may  in  ten  years  he  made  to  double  its  produce,  and  in  twenty 
to  quadruple  it." 

No  opinions  could  be  more  strongly  or  unconditionally  expressed  than 
these.  No  reservation  or  exception  is  made.  1  may  safely  appeal  to  each 
of  the  many  hundreds  who  have  attempted  to  obey  these  instructions,  to 
declare  whether  any  one  considered  his  own  naturally  poor  soils  excluded 
from  the  benefit  of  these  promises— or  whether  a  tithe  of  the  promised  bene- 
lit  was  realized  on  any  farm  composed  generally  of  such  soils. 

In  a  field  of  mine  that  has  been  secured  from  grazing  since  1814,  and  cul- 
tivated on  the  mild  four-shift  rotation,  the  produce  of  a  marked  spot  has  been 
measured  every  fourth  year  (when  in  corn)  since  1820.  The  difference  of 
product  has  been  such  as  the  differences  of  season  might  have  caused  — 
and  the  last  crop  (in  1S2S)  was  worse  than  those  of  either  of  the  two  pre- 
ceding rotations.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  even  the  smallest 
increase  of  productive  power  had  taken  place  in  all  the  preceding  fourteen 
years.  Nor  has  there  been,  since  1828,  in  the  apparent  products  of  this 
ground,  any  manifestation  that  there  has  been  any  more  of  subsequent  than 
of  previous  improvement,  from  the  vegetable  manurings  furnished  by  its 
growth. 

A  still  more  striking  proof,  because  of  the  much  larger  scale,  as  well  as 
long  continuance  of  the  experiment,  has  been  very  recently,  (in  1842,) 
as  well  as  in  former  times,  mentioned  to  me,  as  confirmation  of  my  views 
in  this  respect  CoL  George  Blow,  of  Sussex,  a  highly  respectable  gen- 
tleman, and  intelligent  and  observant  farmer,  has  adhered  for  nearly  30 
years  to  Taylor's  "inclosing  system,"  and  with  a  very  mild  rotation,  on  a 
farm  of  GOO  arable  acres,  of  sandy  soil,  and  originally  poor ;  and  has 
taken  but  one  crop  (corn)  in  every  three  years.  A  few  spots  only  of  bet- 
ter quality,  (the  sites  of  old  buildings,  &c.,)  were  put  in  wheat  or  oats  after 
the  corn ;  the  great  body  of  the  land  having  had  regularly  two  years  in 
three  to  rest,  and  to  manure  itself  by  its  volunteer  growth  of  weeds  and 
grass.  Very  little  grazing,  and  that  but  rarely,  has  been  permitted.  There 
could  have  been  no  material  mistake  as  to  the  general  products  and  re- 
sults; and  the  proprietor  is  confident  that  the  land  has  not  improved  in 
production  in  all  this  long  time.  Yet,  on  soil  differently  constituted,  Col. 
Blow  has  improved  and  increased  the  products,  rapidly  and  profitably. 
These  two  facts,  though  observed  more  particularly  and  for  longer  time 
than  any  others  known,  agree  with,  and  are  but  confirmatory  of  others 
presented  to  some  extent  on  almost  every  farm  in  the  tide-water  region  of 
Virginia. 

It  is  far  from  my  intention,  by  these  remarks,  and  statements  of  facts,  to 
deny  the  propriety,  or  to  question  the  highly  beneficial  results,  of  applying  the 
system  of  improvement  recommended  by  '  Arator,'  to  soils  originally  fertile. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  as  much  my  object  to  maintain  the  facility  of  restoring 
to  worn  lands  their  natural  degree  of  fertility,  by  vegetable  applications,  as  it 
is  to  deny  the  power  of  exceeding  that  degree,  however  low  it  may  have  been. 
One  more  quotation  will  be  offered,  because  its  recent  date  and  the 
source  whence  it  is  derived  furnish  the  best  proof  that  it  is  still  the  received 
opinion,  among  agricultural  writers,  that  all  soils  may  be  profitably  im- 
proved by  putrescent  manures.  An  article  in  the  •  bnoraan  fhrmer,'1  of 
October   14th,  1831,  on  "manuring  large  farms,"  by  the  editor,  (G.  B. 


2g  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 

Smith,)  contains  the  following  expressions.  "By  proper  exertions,  every 
farm  in  the  United  States  can  be  manured  with  less  expense  than  the  sur- 
plus profits  arising  from  the  manure  would  come  to.  This  we  sincerely 
believe,  and  we  have  arrived  at  this  conclusion  from  long  and  attentive 
observation.  We  never  yet  saw  a  farm  that  we  could  not  point  to  means 
of  manuring,  and  bring  into  a  state  of  high  and  profitable  cultivation  at  an 
expense  altogether  inconsiderable  when  contrasted  with  the  advantages 
to  be  derived  from  it."  The  remainder  of  the  article  shows  that  putrescent 
manures  are  principally  relied  on  to  produce  these  effects ;  marsh  and 
swamp  mud  are  the  only  kinds  referred  to  that  are  not  entirely  putrescent 
in  their  action,  and  mud  certainly  cannot  be  used  to  manure  every  farm. 
Mr.  Smith  having  been  long  the  conductor  of  a  valuable  agricultural  jour- 
nal, as  a  matter  of  course,  is  extensively  acquainted  with  the  works  and 
opinions  of  the  best  writers  on  agriculture;  and  therefore,  his  advancing 
the  foregoing  opinions,  as  certain  and  undoubted,  is  as  much  a  proof  of  the 
general  concurrence  therein  of  preceding  writers,  as  if  the  same  had 
been  given  as  a  digest  of  their  precepts. 

Some  persons  will  readily  admit  the  great  difference  in  the  capacities  of 
soils  for  improvement,  but  consider  a  deficiency  of  clay  only  to  cause  the 
want  of  power  to  retain  manures.  The  general  excess  of  sand  in  our  poor 
lands  might  warrant  this  belief  in  a  superficial  and  limited  observer.  But 
though  clay  soils  are  more  rarely  met  with,  they  present,  in  proportion  to 
their  extent,  full  as  much  poor  land.  The  most  barren  and  worthless  soils 
in  the  county  of  Prince  George  are  also  the  stiffest.  A  poor  clay  soil  will 
retain  manure  longer  than  a  poor  sandy  soil  —but  it  will  not  the  less  cer- 
tainly lose  its  acquired  fertility  at  a  somewhat  later  period.  When  it  is 
considered  that  a  much  greater  quantity  of  manure  is  required  by  clay 
soils,  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  temporary  improvement  of  the 
sandy  soils  would  not  be  attended  with  more  profit  —or,  more  properly 
speaking,  with  less  actual  loss. 

It  is  true  that,  the  capacity  of  a  soil  for  improvement  is  greatly  affected 
by  its  texture,  shape  of  the  surface,  and  its  supply  of  moisture.  Dry,  level, 
or  clay  soils,  will  retain  manure  longer  than  the  sandy,  hilly,  or  wet.  But 
however  important  these  circumstances  may  be,  neither  the  presence  or 
absence  of  any  of  them  can  cause  the  essential  differences  of  capacity  for 
improvement.  There  are  some  rich  and  valuable  soils  with  either  one  or 
more  of  all  these  faults— and  there  are  other  soils  the  least  capable  of  re- 
ceiving improvement,  free  from  objections  as  to  their  texture,  degree  of 
moisture,  or  inclination  of  their  surface.  Indeed  the  great  body  of  our 
poor  ridge  lands  are  more  free  from  faults  of  this  kind,  than  soils  of  far 
greater  productiveness  usually  are.  Unless  then  some  other  and  far  more 
powerful  obstacle  to  improvement  exists,  why  should  not  all  our  wood-land 
be  highly  enriched,  by  the  hundreds,  or  thousands,  of  crops  of  leaves  which 
have  successively  fallen  and  rotted  there  !  Notwithstanding  this  vegetable 
manuring,  which  infinitely  exceeds  all  that  the  industry  and  patience  of 
man  can  possibly  equal,  most  of  our  wood-land  remains  poor  ;  and  this  one 
fact  (which  at  least  is  indisputable)  ought  to  satisfy  all  of  the  impossibility 
of  enriching  such  soils  by  putrescent  manures  only.  Some  few  acres  may 
be  highly  improved,  by  receiving  all  the  manure  derived  from  the  offal  of 
the  whole  farm — and  entire  farms,  in  the  neighborhood  of  towns,  may  be 
kept  rich  by  continually  applying  large  quantities  of  purchased  manures. 
But  no  where  can  a  farm  be  found,  which  has  been  improved  beyond  its 
original  fertility,  by  means  of  the  vegetable  resources  of  its  own  arable 
fields.  If  this  opinion  is  erroneous,  nothing  is  easier  than  to  prove  my  mistake, 
by  adducing  undoubted  examples  of  such  improvements  having  been  made. 

But  a  few  remarks  will  suffice  on  the  capacity  Ibr  improvement  of  worn 


CALCARE01  -  MAM  11ES     nil 


•29 


lands,  which  were  originally  fertile.  With  regard  to  these  soils,  i  have 
only  to  concur  in  the  received  opinion  of  their  fitness  for  durable  and  pro- 
fitable improvement  by  putrescent  manures.  After" being  exhausted  i>y 
cultivation,  they  will  recover  their  productive  power,  by  merely  being  lefl 
to  rest  for  a  sufficient  time,  and  receiving  the  manure  made  by  nature,  ol 
the  weeds  and  other  plants  that  grow  and  die  upon  the  land  Given  ii 
robbed  of  the  greater  part  of  that  supply,  by  the  grazing  of  animals,  a  still 

longer  time  will  .serve  to  obtain  the  same  result.  The  better  a  soil  Was  at 
first,  the  sooner  it  will  recover  by  these  means,  or  by  artificial  manuring. 
<  )u  soils  of  this  kind,  the  labors  of  the  Improving  former  meet  with  certain 
success  and  lull  reward  ;  ami  whenever  we  hear  of  remarkable  improve- 
ments of  poor  lands  by  putrescent  manures,  further  inquiry  will  show  us 
that  these  poor  lands  had  once  been  rich. 

The  continued  fertility  of  certain  countries,  for  hundreds  or  even  thou- 
sands of  years,  does  not  prove  that  the  land  could  not  be,  or  had  not  been, 
exhausted  by  cultivation;  but  only  that  it  was  slow  to  exhaust  and  rapid 
in  recovering;  so  that  whatever  repeated  changes  may  have  occurred  in 
each  particular  tract,  the  whole  country  taken  together  always  retained  a 
high  degree  of  productiveness.  Still  the  same  rule  will  apply  to  the  richest 
and  the  poorest  soils— to  wit,  that  each  exerts  strongly  a  force  to  retain  as 
much  fertility  as  nature  gave  to  it —and  that  when  worn  and  reduced,  each 
kind  may  easily  be  restored  to  its  original  state,  but  cannot  be  raised 
higher,  with  either  durability  or  profit,  by  putrescent  manures,  whether  ap- 
plied by  the  bounty  o\'  nature,  or  the  industry  of  man. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
EFFECTS  OF  THE  PRESENCE  OF  CALCAREOUS  EARTH  IN  -OILS. 

Proposition  2. —  The   nature!  sterility  of  the  soi/.v   of  lower    Virgim 
caused  l>y  such  soils  bang  destitute ctf  calcareous  earth,  and  their  being  in- 
jured by  the  presence  and  effects  <>f  vegetable  arid. 

The  means  which  would  appear  the  most  likely  to  lead  to  the  can 
the  different  capacities  of  soils  for  improvement  is  to  inquire  whether  any 
known  ingredient  or  quality  is  always  to  be  found  belonging  to  improvable 
soils,  and  never  to  the  unimprovable — or  which  always  accompanies  the 
latter,  and  never  the  former  kind.     If  either  of  these  results  can  be  ol 
ed,  we  will  have  good  ground  for  supposing  that  we  have  discovered  the 
general  cause  of  fertility,  in  the  one  case,  or  of  barrenness,  in   the  othei  . 
and  it  will  follow  that,  if  we  can  supply  to  barren  soils  tin-  deficient  bene- 
ficial ingredient — or  can  destroy  that  which  is  injurious  to  them — their 
incapacity  for  receiving  improvement  will  be  removed.     All  the  common 
ingredients  of  soils,  as  sand,  clay,  or  gravel — and  such  qualities  as  moisture 
or  dryness — a  level,  or  a  hilly  surface — however  they  may  affect  the  value 
of  soils,  are  each  sometimes  found  exhibited,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  in 
both  the  fertile  and  the  sterile.     The  abundance  of  pul 
matter  might  well  be  considered  the,  >,   one  who,    jj] 

only  from  Ian. Is  long  under  cultivation.     But  though  vegetable  matter  in 
sufficient  quantity  is  essential  to  the  existence  of  fertility,  yet  will  this  sub- 
also  be  found  inadequate  for  the  cause.     \.  ttter  abounds 

in  all  rich  land,  if    i-.  admitted  .    but  il  ha,  als 

quantities  exceeding  all, computation,  to  n  <»». 

1 


30  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 

But  there  is  one  ingredient  of  which  not  the  smallest  proportion  can  be 
found  in  any  of  our  poor  soils,  and  which,  wherever  found,  indicates  a  soil 
remarkable  for  natural  and  durable  fertility.  This  is  calcareous  earth,  or 
carbonate  of  lime.  These  facts  alone,  if  sustained,  will  go  far  to  prove 
that  this  earth  is  the  cause  of  fertility,  and  the  cure  for  barrenness. 

On  some  part  of  most  farms  touching  tide-water,  either  muscle  or  oyster 
shells  are  found  mixed  .with  the  soil.  Oyster  shells  are  confined  to  the 
lands  on  salt  water,  where  they  are  very  abundant,  and  sometimes  extend 
through  large  fields.  Higher  up  the  rivers,  muscle  shells  only  are  to  be 
seen  thus  deposited  by  nature,  or  by  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  and  they 
decrease  as  we  approach  the  falls  of  the  rivers.  The  proportion  of  shelly 
land  in  the  counties  highest  on  tide-water  is  very  small ;  but  the  small  ex- 
tent of  these  spots  does  not  prevent,  but  rather  aids,  the  exhibition  of 
the  peculiar  qualities  of  such  soils.  Spots  of  shelly  land,  not  exceeding  a 
few  acres  in  extent,  could  not  well  have  been  cultivated  differently  from  the 
balance  of  the  fields  of  which  they  formed  parts — and  therefore  they  can 
be  better  compared  with  the  worse  soils  under  like  treatment.  Every  acre 
of  shelly  land  is,  or  has  been,  remarkable  for  its  richness,  and  still  more  for 
its  durability.  There  are  few  farmers  among  us  who  have  not  heard  de- 
scribed tracts  of  shelly  soil  on  Nansemond  and  York  rivers,  which  are 
celebrated  for  their  long  resistance  of  the  most  exhausting  course  of  tillage, 
and  which  still  remain  fertile,  notwithstanding  all  the  injury  which  they 
must  have  sustained  from  their  severe  treatment.  We  are  told  that  on 
some  of  these  lands,  corn  has  been  raised  every  successive  year,  without 
any  help  from  manure,  for  a  longer  time  than  the  owners  could  remember, 
or  could  be  informed  of  correctly.  But  without  relying  on  any  such  re- 
markable cases,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  every  acre  of  our  shelly 
land  has  been  at  least  as  much  tilled,  and  as  little  manured,  as  any  in  the 
country;  and  that  it  is  still  the  richest  and  most  valuable  of  all  our  old 
cleared  lands. 

The  fertile  but  narrow  strips,  along  the  banks  of  our  rivers,  (which  form 
the  small  portion  of  our  high-land  of  first-rate  quality,)  seldom  extend  far 
without  exhibiting  spots  in  which  shells  are  visible,  so  that  the  eye  alone 
is  sufficient  to  prove  the  soil  of  such  places  to  be  calcareous.  The  similari- 
ty of  natural  growth,  and  of  all  other  marks  of  character,  are  such,  that 
the  observer  might  very  naturally  infer  that  the  former  presence  of  shells 
had  given  the  same  valuable  qualities  to  all  these  soils— but  that  they  had 
so  generally  rotted,  and  been  incorporated  with  the  other  earths,  that  they 
remained  visible  only  in  a  few  places,  where  they  had  been  most  abundant. 
The  accuracy  of  this  inference  will  hereafter  be  examined. 

The  natural  growth  of  the  shelly  soils  (and  of  those  adjacent  of  similar 
value)  is  entirely  different  from  that  of  the  great  body  of  our  lands.  What- 
ever tree  thrives  well  on  the  one,  is  seldom  found  -on  the  other  class  of  soils 
—  or,  if  found,  it  shows  plainly,  by  its  imperfect  and  stunted  condition,  on 
how  unfriendly  a  soil  it  is  placed.  To  the  rich  river  margins  are  almost 
entirely  confined  the  black  or  wild  locust,  hackberry  or  sugar-nut  tree, 
and  papaw.  The  locust  is  with  great  difficulty  eradicated,  or  the  newer 
growth  of  it  kept  under  on  cultivated  lands ;  and  from  the  remarkable  ra- 
pidity with  which  it  springs  up  and  increases  in  size,  it  forms  a  serious  ob- 
stacle to  the  cultivation  of  land  on  the  river  banks.  Yet  on  the  wood-land 
only  a  mile  or  two  from  the  river,  not  a  locust  is  to  be  seen.  On  shelly 
soils,  pines  and  broom  grass  [Andropogon  scoparius?~]  cannot  thrive,  and 
are  rarely  able  to  maintain  even  the  most  sickly  growth. 

Some  may  say  that  these  striking  differences  of  growth  do  not  so  much 
show  a  difference  in  the  constitution  of  the  soils,  as  in  their  state  of  fertility; 
or  that  one  class  of  the  plants  above  named  delights  in  rich,  and  the  other 


CALCAREOrs  MANURES-THEORY.  3[ 

in  poor  land.  No  plant  prefers  poor  to  rich  soil— or  can  thrive  better  on  a 
scarcity  of  food,  than  with  an  abundant  supply.  Pine,  broom-grass,  and 
sheep-sorrel,  delight  in  a  class  of  soils  that  are  generally  unproductive— but 
not  on  account  of  their  poverty  ;  for  all  these  plants  show,  by  the  greater 
or  less  vigor  of  their  growth,  the  abundance  or  scarcity  of  vegetable  matter 
in  the  soil.  But  on  this  class  of  soils,  no  quantity  of  vegetable  manure 
could  make  locusts  flourish,  though  they  will  grow  rapidly  on  a  calcareous 
hill-side,  from  which  all  the  soil  capable  of  supporting  other  ordinary  plants 
has  been  washed  away. 

In  thus  describing  and  distinguishing  soils  by  their  growth,  let  me  not  be 
understood  as  extending  these  rules  to  other  soils  and  climates  than  our 
own.  It  is  well  established  that  changes  of  kind  in  successive  growths  of 
timber  have  occurred  in  other  places,  without  any  known  cause ;  and  a 
difference  of  climate  will  elsewhere  produce  effects,  which  here  would  in- 
dicate a  change  of  soil. 

Some  rare  exceptions  to  the  general  fertility  of  shelly  lands  are  found 
where  the  proportion  of  calcareous  earth  is  in  great  excess.  Too  much  of 
this  ingredient  causes  even  a  greater  degree  of  sterility  than  its  total  ab- 
sence. This  cause  of  barrenness  is  very  common  in  France  and  England, 
(on  chalk  soils,)  and  very  extensive  tracts  ate  not  worth  the  expense  of 
cultivation,  or  improvement.  The  few  small  spots  that  are  rendered  bar- 
ren here  are  seldom  (if  ever)  so  affected  by  the  excess  of  oyster  or  muscle 
shells  in  the  soil.  These  effects  generally  are  caused  by  beds  of  fossil  sea- 
shells,  which  in  some  places  reach  the  surface,  and  are  thus  exposed  to  the 
plough.  These  spots  are  not  often  more  than  thirty  feet  across,  and  their 
nature  is  generally  evident  to  the  eye  ;  and  if  not,  is  so  easily  determined 
by  chemical  tests,  as  to  leave  no  reason  for  confounding  the  injurious  and 
beneficial  effects  of  calcareous  earth.  This  exception  to  the  general  fer- 
tilizing effect  of  this  ingredient  of  our  soils  would  scarcely  require  naming, 
but  to  mark  what  might  be  deemed  an  apparent  contradiction.  But  this 
exception,  and  its  cause,  must  be  kept  in  mind,  and  considered  as  always 
understood  and  admitted  throughout  all  my  remarks,  and  which  therefore 
it  is  not  necessary  to  name  specially,  when  the  general  qualities  of  calca- 
reous earth  are  spoken  of. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  I  advanced  the  important  fact  that  none 
of  our  poor  soils  contain  naturally  the  least  particle  of  calcareous  earth. 
So  far,  this  is  supported  merely  by  my  assertion— and  all  those  who  have 
studied  agriculture  in  books  will  require  strong  proof  before  they  can  give 
credit  to  the  existence  of  a  fact,  which  is  either  unsupported,  or  indirectly 
denied,  by  all  written  authority.  Others,  who  have  not  attended  to  such 
descriptions  of  soils  in  general,  may  be  too  ready  to  admit  the  truth  of  my 
assertion  —because,  not  knowing  the  opinions  on  this  subject  heretofore  re- 
ceived and  undoubted,  they  would  not  be  aware  of  the  importance  of  their 
admission. 

It  is  true  that  no  author  has  said  expressly  that  every  soil  contains  calca- 
reous earth.  Neither  perhaps  has  any  one  stated  that  every  soil  contains 
some  silicious  or  aluminous  earth.  But  the  manner  in  which  each  one  has 
treated  of  soils  and  their  constituent  parts,  would  cause  their  read' 
infer  that  neither  of  these  three  earths  is  ever  entirely  wanting— or  at  least 
that  the  entire  absence  of  the  calcareous  is  as  rare  as  the  absence  of  sili- 
cious or  aluminous  earth.  Nor  are  we  left  to  gather  this  opinion  solely 
from  indirect  testimony,  as  the  following  examples,  from  the  highest  autl. 
rities,  will  prove.  Davy  says,  "  four  earths  generally  abound  in  soils,  the 
aluminous,  the  silicious,  the  calcareous,  and  the  magneslan"1 ;   and  the  soils 

•  Daw-  \:.   Chi  m.,  Lecture  l 


•.{2  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEOR1 

dt  which  he  slates  the  constitutent  parts,  obtained  by  chemical  analysis,  as 
well  as  those  reported  by  Kirwan,  and  by  Young,  all  contain  some  propoi 
tion  (an  '  a  large  proportion^  of  calcareous  earth.*     Kirwan 

the  component  parts  of  a  soil  which  contained  thirty-one  per  cent,  of  c 
reous  earth,  and  he  supposes  that  proportion  neither  too  little  nor  too  mi 
Young  mentions  soils  of  extraordinary  fertility  containing  seventeen  and 
twenty  per  cent.,  besides  others  with  smaller  proportions  of  calcareous 
earth— and  says  that  Bergman  found  thirty  per  cent,  in  the  best  soil  he  ex- 
amined.t  Rozier  speaks  still  more  strongly  for  the  general  diffusion,  and 
large  proportions  of  this  ingredient  of  soils.  In  his  general  description  of 
earths  and  soils,  he  gives  examples  of  the  supposed  composition  of  the 
three  grades  of  soils  which  he  designates  by  the  terms  rick,  good,  and  mid- 
dling soils  ;  to  the  first  class  he  assigns  a  proportion  of  one  tenth,  to  the 
second,  one  fourth,  and  to  the  last,  one  half  of  its  amount,  of  calcareous 
earth.  The  fair  interpretation  of  the  passage  is  that  the  author  considered 
these  large  proportions  as  general,  in  France  —and  lie  gives  no  intimation 
of  any  soil  entirely  without  calcareous  earth.'; 

The  position  assumed  above,  of  the  general  or  universal  concurrence  of 
former  European  authors  in  the  supposed  general  presence  of  calcareous 
earth  in  soils,  could  be  placed  beyond  dispute  by  extracts  from  their  publi- 
cations. But  this  would  require  many  and  long  extracts,  too  bulky  to  in- 
clude here,  and  which  cannot  be  fairly  abridged,  or  exhibited  by  a  few  ex- 
amples. No  author  says  directly,  indeed,  that  calcareous  earth  is  present 
in  all  soils;  but  its  being  always  named  as  one  of  the  ingredients  of  soils 
in  general,  and  no  cases  of  its  absolute  deficiency  in  tilled  lands  being  di- 
rectly stated,  amount  to  the  declaration  that  calcareous  earth  is  very  rarely, 
if  ever,  entirely  wanting  in  any  soil.  We  may  find  enough  directions  to 
apply  calcareous  manures  to  soils  that  are  deficient  in  that  ingredient ;  but 
that  deficiency  seems  to  be  not  spoken  of  as  absolute,  but  relative  to  other 
soils  more  abundantly  supplied.  In  the  same  manner,  writers  on  agricul- 
ture direct  clay,  or  sand,  to  be  used  as  manure  for  soils  very  def  cient  in 
one  or  the  other  of  those  earths;  but  without  meaning  that  any  soil  under 
cultivation  can  be  found  entirely  destitute  of  sand  or  of  clay.  My  proofs 
from  general  treatises  would  therefore  be  generally  indirect;  and  the 
quotations  necessary  to  exhibit  them  would  show  what  had  not  been  said, 
rather  than  what  hud—  and  that  they  did  not  assert  the  absence  of  calca 
reous  earth,  instead  of  directly  asserting  its  universal  presence.  Extract.-, 
for  this  purpose,  however  satisfactory!  would  necessarily  lie  too  voluminous. 
and  it  is  well  that  they  can  be  dispensed  with.  Better  proof,  because  it  is 
direct,  and  more  concise,  will  be  furnished  by  quoting  the  opinions  of  a  few 
agriculturists  of  our  own  country,  who  were  extensively  acquainted  with 
European  authors,  and  have  evidently  drawn  their  opinions  from  those 
sources.  These  quotations  will  not  only  show  conclusively  that  their 
authors  consider  the  received  European  doctrine  to  be  that  all  soils  air 
more  or  less  calcareous— but  also,  that  they  apply  the  same  general  cha- 
fer. Chem.,  Lect.  4  — Kirwan  on  Manures — and  Young's  Prize  Essay  on  Manures. 

t  Kirwan  on  Manuies.  article  "Clayey  Loam." 

t  Young's  Essay  on  Manures. 

§  "  C  Examples  of  the  various  composition  of  soils  :  Jtich  soil ; 

silicious  earth,  2  parts;  aluminous,  6  ;  calcareous,  1;  vegetable  earth,  [humus']  I;  in 
all,«ln  parts,  Good  soil — silicious,  :i  parts;  aluminous  4;  calcareous  2J ;  vegetable 
earth,  }  of  1  part;  in  all,  to  parts.  Middling  soil  [sol  mediocre;]  silicious.  l  parts; 
aluminous,  1  ;  calcareous,  ">  parts,  less  by  Borne  atoms  of  vegetable  earth  ;  in  all,  10 
parts.  We  hp  that  it  is  the  largest  proportion  of  aluminous  earth  that  constitutes  the 
greatest  excellence  of  soils ;  anil  we  know  thai  indi  pendenlly  of  their  harmony  ol  con 
position,  they  require  a  sufficiency  of  depth  " — Translated  from  the  article  '  71 
in* the  "Cours  Complet  d'Agriculture  Pratique,  etc  par  PAbbe  Rozier   1816 


,(;i  oi  -  mam  RJ  8    THE0R1  .S3 

lo  tin-  aoila  of  the  Unit  ssin£  a  doil,,t  '" 

naming  rhese  writers,  as  all  whi    have  heretofore  written 

,,r  soils  in  this  country,  have  uttered  bi  f»ol  preceding  English 

criptions  of  soils,    'tfhey.seem  notto  have  suspected  thatany 
i  in  this  respect  between  i  I  Eng- 

land and  i>t"  tins  country,  and  certainly  not  one  1  test  in- 

ii ,i,n  by  any  attempt  at  chemical  analysis,  to  sustain  the  false  charac- 
ter thus  given  to  our 

1.  From  a  ■■  Treatise  on  Agriculture,"  (ascribed  to  General  Armstrong,) 
published  in  the  American  Farmer.  |  I  :  '■'>■] 

••Of  sue  or  eight  substances,  which  chemists  have  denominated  earths, 
,,,„,. ,,,,  .-,  and  form  the  crust  ol  our 

are  silica,  alumina,  lime,  and  magnesia." — "  In  a  pure  or  isolated 
state,  these  earths  are  wholly  unproductive?  but  when  decomposed  and 

mixed,  and  to  this  mixture  is  added   the  residuum  of  dead  animal  or  I 
table  matter,  they  become  fertile,and  take  the  general  name  ot  soils, and 
are  again  denominated  alter  the  earth  that  most  abounds  in  their  composi- 
tion respectively.*1 

2.  Address  of  R.  H.  Rose  to  the  Agricultural  Society  of  Susquehanna. 
[Am.  Far.  Vol  Up,  101.] 

•'Geologists  suppose  our  earth  to  have  been  masses  of  rock  of  various 
kinds,  hut  principally  silieious,  aluminous,  calcareous,  and  magnesian— from 
idual  attrition,  decay,  and  mixture  of  which,  together  with  an  addi- 
tion of  vegetable  and  animal  matter,  is  formed  the  soil;  and  this  is  called 
sandy,  clayey,  calcareous,  or  magnesian,  according  as  the  particular  primi- 
tive material  preponderates  in  its  formation." 

3.  Address  of  Robert  Smith  to  the  Maryland  Agricultural  Society.  LAm. 
Far.  Vol.  Hi.  P.  228.] 

•• Xbe  soils of  our  country  are  in  general  clay,  sand,  gravel,  clayey 

loam,  sandy  loam,  and  gravelly  loam.  Clay,  sand,  and  gravel,  need  n 
scription,  &c"— •'  Clayey  loam  is  a  compound  soil,  consisting  of  clay  and 
sand  or  gravel,  with  a  mixture  of  calcareous  matter,  and  in  which  clay  is 
predominant  Sandy  or  graveUy  loam  is  a  compound  soil,  consisting  oi 
-and  or  gravel  and  ciay  with  a  mixture  of  calcareou*  mall,  r,  and  in  which 
i  gravel  is  predominant." 

The  first  two  extracts  merely  state  the  geological  theory  of  the  forma- 
tion of  soils,  which  is  received  as  correct  by  the  most  eminent  agriculturists 
,ii  Europe.  How  far  it  may  be  supported  or  opposed  by  the  actual  consti- 
tution and  number  of  ingredients  of  European  soils,  is  not  for  me  to  decide, 
nor  is  the  consideration  necessary  to  my  subject.     But  the  adoption  ol  this 

al  theorj  bj  American  writers,  without  excepting  Ameri< 
an  indirect,  but  complete  application  to  them  of  the  same  character  and 
composition,      The  writer  last  quoted  stales  positively,  that   the  various 
loams  (which  comprise  at  least  nineteen  twentieths  of  our  soils,  and  1  pre- 
sumealso  of  the  soils  of  Maryland.)  contain  calcareous  matter.     Tl 

ton  of  this  opinion  by  Mr.  Smith  is  sufficient  to  prove.tnat  such  was 
the  lair  and  plain  deduction  from  his  general  rea 

which  source  only  could  his  opinions  have  ed,     It  the  soils  of 

Maryland  are  net  very  unlike  those  of  Virginia,  I  will  venture  to  assert, 
that  not  one  in  a  thousand  of  all  the  clayey,  sandy,  and  gravelly  loams, 
contains  the  smallest  proportion  of  carbonate  of  lime— and  that  not  a  single 
specimen  of  calcareous  soil  can  be  found,  between  the  falls  of  the  rivers 
and  the  most  eastern  body  of  limestol 

But  though  the  direct  testimony  of  European  authors,  as  cited  in  a 
foregoing  page,  concurs  with  the  Indirect  proofs  referred  to  since  to  induce 
the  belief  thai  soils  are   very  rarely  destitute  of  calcareous  earth,  yet  state 


34  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 

ments  may  be  found  of  some  particular  soils  being  considered  of  that  cha- 
racter. These  statemen.s,  even  if  presented  by  the  authors  of  general 
treatises,  would  only  seem  to  present  exceptions  to  their  general  rule  of  the 
almost  universal  diffusion  of  calcareous  earth  in  soils.  But,  so  far  as  I  know, 
no  such  exceptions  are  named  in  the  descriptions  of  soils  in  any  general 
treatise,  and  therefore  have  not  the  slightest  influence  in  contradicting  or  mo- 
difying their  testimony  on  this  subject.  It  is  in  the  description  of  soils  of 
particular  farms,  or  districts,  that  some  such  statements  are  made ;  and 
even  if  no  such  examples  had  been  mentioned,  they  would  not  have  been 
needed  to  prove  the  existence,  in  Europe,  of  some  soils,  like  most  of  ours, 
destitute  of  calcareous  earth.  These  facts  do  not  oppose  my  argument.  I 
have  not  asserted,  (nor  believed,  since  I  have  endeavored  to  investigate  this 
subject,)  that  there  were  not  soils  in  Europe,  and  perhaps  many  extensive 
districts,  containing  no  calcareous  earth.  My  argument  merely  maintains, 
that  these  facts  would  not  be  inferred,  but  the  contrary,  by  any  general  and 
cursory  reader  of  the  agricultural  treatises  of  Europe  with  which  we  are 
best  acquainted.  It  has  not  been  my  purpose  to  inquire  as  to  the  existence, 
or  extent,  of  soils  of  this  kind  in  Europe.  But  judging  from  the  indirect 
testimony  furnished  by  accounts  of  the  mineral  and  vegetable  productions, 
in  general  descriptions  of  different  countries,  I  would  infer  that  soils 
having  no  calcareous  earth  were  often  found  in  Scotland  and  the  northern 
part  of  Germany,  and  that  they  were  comparatively  rare  in  England  and 
France. 

With  my  early  impressions  of  the  nature  and  composition  of  soils,  de- 
rived in  like  manner  from  the  general  descriptions  given  in  books,  it  was 
with  surprise,  and  some  distrust,  that,  when  first  attempting  to  analyze  soils, 
in  1817,  I  found  most  of  the  specimens  entirely  destitute  of  calcareous 
earth.  The  trials  were  repeated  with  care  and  accuracy,  on  soils  from 
various  places,  until  I  felt  authorized  to  assert,  without  fear  of  contradiction, 
that  no  naturally  poor  soil,  below  the  falls  of  the  rivers,  contains  the  small- 
est proportion  of  calcareous  earth.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  any  exception  to 
this  peculiarity  of  constitution  can  be  found  in  any  poor  soil  above  the 
falls ;  but  though  these  soils  are  far  more  extensive  and  important  in  other  re- 
spects, they  are  beyond  the  district  within  the  limits  of  which  I  propose  to 
confine  my  investigation. 

These  results  are  highly  important,  whether  considered  merely  as  serving 
to  establish  my  proposition,  or  as  showing  a  radical  difference  between 
most  of  our  soils,  and  those  of  the  best  cultivated  parts  of  Europe.  Putting 
aside  my  argument  to  establish  a  particular  theory  of  improvement,  the 
ascertained  fact  of  the  universal  absence  of  calcareous  earth  in  our  poor 
soils  leads  to  this  conclusion,  that  profitable  as  calcareous  manures  have 
been  found  to  be  in  countries  where  the  soils  are  generally  calcareous  in 
some  degree,  they  must  be  far  more  so  on  our  soils  that  are  quite  destitute 
of  that  necessary  earth. 


CHAPTER  V. 

RESULTS  OF  THE  CHEMICAL  EXAMINATIONS  OF  VARIOUS  SOILS. 

Proposition  2. — continued. 

The  certainty  of  any  results  of  chemical  analysis  would  be  doubted  by 
most  persons  who  have  paid  no  attention  to  the  means  employed  for  such 
operations ;  and  their  incredulity  will  be  the  more  excusable,  when  such 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEOKY.  35 

results  are  reported  by  one  knowing  very  little  of  the  science  of  chemistry, 
and  whose  limited  knowledge  was  gained  without  aid  or  instruction,  and 
was  sought  solely  with  the  view  of  pursuing  this  investigation.  Appearing 
under  such  disadvantages,  it  is  therefore  the  more  incumbent  on  me  to 
show  my  claim  to  accuracy,  >>r  to  BO  explain  my  method  as  to  enable  others 
to  detect  its  errors,  if  any  exist.  To  analyze  a  specimen  of  soil  completely 
requires  an  amount  of  scientific  acquirement  and  practical  skill  to  which  1 
make  no  pretension.  But  merely  to  ascertain  the  absence  of  calcareous 
earth,  (or  carbonate  of  lime,)  or,  if  present,  to  find  its  quantity,  requires 
but  little  skill,  and  less  science. 

The  methods  recommended  by  different  agricultural  chemists  for  ascer- 
taining the  proportion  of  calcareous  earth  in  soils  agree  in  all  material 
points.  Their  process  will  be  described,  and  made  as  plain  as  possible. 
A  specimen  of  soil  of  convenient  size  is  dried,  pounded,  and  weighed,  and 
then  thrown  into  muriatic  acid  diluted  with  three  or  four  times  its  quantity 
of  water.  The  acid  combines  with,  and  dissolves  the  lime  of  the  calcareous 
earth,  and  its  other  ingredient,  the  carbonic  acid,  being  disengaged,  rises 
through  the  liquid  in  the  form  of  gas,  or  air,  and  escapes  with  effervescence. 
After  the  mixture  has  been  well  stirred,  and  has  stood  until  all  efferves- 
cence is  over,  (the  fluid  still  being  somewhat  acid  to  the  taste,  to  prove 
that  enough  acid  had  been  used,  by  some  excess  being  left,)  the  whole  is 
poured  into  a  piece  of  blotting  paper,  folded  so  as  to  fit  within  a  glass  fun- 
nel. The  fluid  containing  the  dissolved  lime  passes  through  the  paper, 
leaving  behind  the  clay  and  silicious  sand,  and  any  other  solid  matter  ;  over 
which,  pure  water  is  poured  and  passed  off  several  times,  so  as  to  wash  off 
all  remains  of  the  dissolved  lime.  These  filtered  washings  are  added  to 
the  solution,  to  all  of  which  is  then  poured  a  solution  of  carbonate  of  potash. 
The  two  dissolved  salts  thus  thrown  together,  {muriate  of  lime  composed 
of  muriatic  acid  and  lime,  and  carbonate  of  potash,  composed  of  carbonic 
acid  and  potash,)  immediately  decompose  each  other,  and  form  two  new 
combinations.  The  muriatic  acid  leaves  the  lime,  and  combines  with  the 
potash,  for  which  it  has  a  stronger  attraction— and  the  muriate  of  potash 
thus  formed,  being  a  soluble  salt,  remains  dissolved  and  invisible  in  the 
water.  The  lime  and  carbonic  acid  being  in  contact,  when  let  loose  by 
their  former  partners,  instantly  unite,  and  form  carbonate  of  lime,  or  calca- 
reous earth,  which  being  insoluble,  falls  to  the  bottom.  This  precipitate 
is  then  separated  by  filtering  paper,  is  washed,  dried  and  weighed,  and  thus 
shows  the  proportion  of  carbonate  of  lime  contained  in  the  soil.* 

In  this  process,  the  carbonic  acid  which  first  composed  part  of  the  calca- 
reous earth,  escapes  into  the  air,  and  another  supply  is  afterwards  furnished 
from  the  decomposition  of  the  carbonate  of  potash.  But  this  change  of 
one  of  its  ingredients  does  not  alter  the  quantity  of  the  calcareous  earth, 
which  is  always  composed  of  certain  invariable  proportions  of  its  two 
component  parts ;  and  when  all  the  lime  has  been  precipitated  as  above 
directed,  it  will  necessarily  be  combined  with  precisely  its  first  quantity  of 
carbonic  acid. 

This  operation  is  so  simple,  and  the  means  for  conducting  it  so  easy  to 
obtain,  that  it  will  generally  be  the  most  convenient  mode  for  finding  the 
proportion  of  calcareous  earth  in  those  manures  that  are  known  to  contain 
it  abundantly,  and  where  an  error  of  a  few  grains  cannot  be  very  material. 
But  if  a  very  accurate  result  is  necessary,  this  method  will  not  serve,  on  ac- 
count of  several  causes  of  error  which  always  occur.     Should  no  calcareous 

•  More  full  directions  for  the  analysis  of  soils  may  be  found  in  Kirwan's  Essay  on 
Manures,  Rozier's  Cours  Complet,  &c,  and  Davy's  Agricultural  Chemistry. 


36 


CALCAREOUS  MAM  RES— THEORT. 


earth  be  present  in  a  soil  thus  analyzed,  the  muriatic  acid  will  take  up  a 
small  quantity  of  aluminous  earth,  which  will  be  precipitated  by  the  car- 
bonate of  potash,  and  without  further  investigation,  would  be  considered 
as  so  much  calcareous  earth!  And  if  any  compounds  of  lime  and  vegeta- 
ble acids  are  present,  (which  for  reasons  hereafter  to  be  stated,  I  believe  I" 
be  nut  uncommon  in  soils,)  some  portion  of  them  may  be  dissolved,  and 
appear  in  the  result  as  carbonate  of  lime,  though  not  an  atom  of  that  sub- 
stance was  in  the  soil.  Thus,  every  soil  examined  by  this  method  of  solu- 
tion and  precipitation  will  yield  some  small  result  of  what  would  appear  as 
carbonate  of  lime,  though  actually  destitute  of  such  an  ingredient.  The 
inaccuracies  of  this  method  were  no  doubt  known  (though  passed  over 
without  notice)  by  Davy,  and  other  men  of  science  who  have  recommended 
its  use;  but  as  they  considered  calcareous  earth  merely  as  one  of  the 
earthy  ingredients  of  soil,  operating  mechanically,  (as  do  sand  and  clay.) 
on  the  texture  of  the  soil,  they  would  scarcely  suppose  that  a  difference  of 
a  grain  or  two  could  materially  affect  the  practical  value  of  an  analysis,  or 
the  character  of  the  soil  under  examination.* 

The  pneumatic  apparatus  proposed  by  Davy,  as  another  means  for 
showing  the  proportion  of  calcareous  earth  in  soils,  is  liable  to  none  of 
these  objections;  and  when  some  other  causes  of  error  peculiar  to  this 
method,  are  known  and  guarded  against,  its  accuracy  is  almost  perfect,  in 
ascertaining  the  quantity  of  calcareous  earth— to  which  substance  alone 
its  use  is  limited.  The  following  representation  and  description  will  make 
the  operation  quite  clear. 


"A,  B,  C,  D,  represent  the  dill'erent  parts  of  this  apparatus,  A  represents  the  bottle 
for  receiving  the  soil.  B  the  bottle  containing  the  acid,  furnished  with  a  stop-cock. 
C  the  tube  connected  with  a  llaccid  bladder.  IJ  the  graduated  measure.  E  the  bottle 
for  containing  the  bladder.  When  this  instrument  is  used,  a  given  quantity  of  soil  is 
introduced  into  A.  B  is  Idled  with  muriatic  acid  diluted  with  an  equal  quantity  of  water  ; 
and  the  stop-cock  being  closed,  is  connected  with   the   upper  orifice  of  A,  which  is 


*  "Chalks,  calcareous  marls,  or  powdered  limestone,  act  merely  by  forming  a  useful 
earthy  ingredient  in  the  soil,  and  their  elKcacy  is  proportioned  to  the  deficiency  of  calca- 
reous matter,  which  in  larger  or  smaller  quantities  seems  to  be  an  essential  ingredient  oi 
all  fertile  soils;  necessary  perhaps  to  their  proper  texture,  and  as  an  ingredient  id  the 
organs  of  plants."  [Davy's  Agr.  Chem.  page  21— and  further  on  he  says]  "  Chalk  and 
marl  or  carbonate  of  lime  onli/  improve  the  texture  of  a  soil,  or  its  relation  to  absorption  . 
it  arts  marl,/  asoneoj  its  earthy  ingredunls." 


IREOUti  MANURES    THEOR1  37 

ground  lotedeive  it.    The  tube  C  ia  introduced  into  the  lower  orifice  ol  A,  and  the 

bladder  conneclcil  with  it  placed  in  it-.  Baceid  state  into  I'.,  which  is  filled  with  water. 
The  graduated  measure  is  placed  under  the  tube  of  E  when  the  elop-cockol  B  ia 
turned,  the  acid  fiowa  into  A.  m  it*  ,l  paaaea 

through  C  into  the  bladder,  end  diaplacea  a  quantity  of  water  in  E  equal  to  it  in  bulk, 
and  this  water  flows  through  the  tube  into  the  graduated  measure;  and  gives  by  its 
volume  the  indication  of  the  proportion  of  carbonic  acid  disengaged  from  the  soil ;  lor 
every  ounce  measure  of  which  two  grains  of  carbonate  of  lime  may  be  estimated." — 
Davy't  jSgr.  I'/um. 

The  correctness  of  this  mode  of  analysis  depends  on  two  well-established 
facts  111  chemistry :  1st,  That  the  component  parts  of  calcareous  earth  al- 
ways hear  the  same  proportion  to  each  other,  and  these  proportions  are  as 
forty-four  parts  (by  weight)  of  carbonic  acid,  to  fifty-six  of  lime.  2d, 
That  the  carbonic  acid  gas  which  two  grains  of  calcareous  earth  will  yield 
is  equal  in  bulk  to  one  ounce  of  fresh  water.  The  process,  with  the  aid  of 
this  apparatus,  disengages,  confines,  and  measures  the  gas  evolved  ;  and  for 
every  measure  equal  to  the  bulk  of  an  ounce  of  water,  the  operator  has 
but  to  allow  two  grains  of  calcareous  earth  in  the  soil  acted  on.  It  is 
evident  that  the  result  can  indicate  the  presence  of  lime  in  no  other  com- 
bination except  that  which  forms  calcareous  earth  ;  nor  of  any  other  earth, 
except  carbonate  id"  magnesia,  which,  if  present,  might  be  mistaken  for 
calcareous  earth,  but  which  is  too  rare,  and  occurs  in  proportions  too  small, 
to  cause  any  material  error  in  ordinary  cases,  and  in  soils  of  this  region. 

But  if  it  be  only  desired  to  know  whether  calcareous  earth  is  entirely 
wanting  in  any  soil— or  to  test  the  truth  of  my  assertion  that  so  great  a 
proportion  of  our  soils  are  destitute  of  that  earth— it  may  be  done  with  fat- 
more  ease  than  by  either  of  the  foregoing  methods,  and  without  apparatus 
of  any  kind.  Let  a  handful  of  the  soil  (without  drying  or  weighing)  be 
thrown  into  a  large  drinking  glass,  containing  enough  of  pure  water  to 
cover  the  soil  about  two  inches.  Stir  it  until  all  the  lumps  have  disappear- 
ed, and  the* water  has  certainly  taken  the  place  of  all  the  atmospheric  air 
which  the  soil  had  enclosed.  Remove  any  vegetable  fibres,  or  froth,  from 
the  surface  of  the  liquid,  so  as  to  have  it  clear.  Then  pour  in  gently  about 
a  table  spoonful  of  undiluted  muriatic  acid,  which  by  its  greater  weight 
will  sink,  and  penetrate  the  soil,  without  any  agitation  being  necessary  for 
that  purpose.  If  any  calcareous  earth  is  present  it  will  quickly  begin  to 
combine  with  the  acid,  throwing  off  its  carbonic  acid  in  g<u,  which  cannot 
fail  to  be  observed  as  it  escapes,  as  the  gas  that  eight  grains  only  of  calca- 
reous earth  would  throw  out,  would  be  equal  in  bulk  to  a  u ill  measure. 
Indeed,  the  product  of  only  a  single  grain  of  calcareous  earth,  would  be 
abundantly  plain  to  the  eye  of  the  careful  operator,  though  it  might  be  the 
whole  amount  of  gas  from  two  thousand  grains  of  soil.  If  no  efferves- 
cence is  seen  even  after  adding  more  acid  and  gently  stirring  the  mixture, 
then  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  the  soil  contained  not  the  smallest  portion 
of  carbonate  of  lime;  nor  of  carbonate  of  magnesia,  the  only  other  substance 
which  could  possibly  be  mistaken  for  it. 

The  examinations  of  all  the  soils  that  will  be  here  mentioned  were  made 
in  this  pneumatic  apparatus,  except  some  of  those  which  evidently  evolved 
no  gas,  and  when  no  other  result  was  required.  As  calcareous  earth  is 
plainly  visible  to  the  eye  in  all  shelly  soils,  they  only  need  examination  to 
ascertain  its  proportion.  A  few  examples  will  show  what 
may  find,  and  how  greatly  they  vary,  even  in  soils  apparently  of  equal  value. 

1.  Soil,  a  black  clayey  loam,  from  the  top  of  the  high  knoll  at  the  end  of 

Coggins  Point,   on   James-river,  containing  fragments  of   muscle  shells 

throughout.     Never  manured  and  supposed  to  have  been  under  scourging 

cultivation  and  close  grazing  from  the  first  settlement  of  the  country ;  then 

5 


38  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY. 

(1818)  capable  of  producing  twenty-five  or  thirty  bushels  of  corn — and  the 
soil  well  suited  to  wheat.  One  thousand  grains,  cleared  by  a  fine  sieve  of 
all  coarse  shelly  matter,  (as  none  can  act  on  the  soil  until  minutely  divided,) 
yielded  sixteen  ounce  measures  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  which  showed  the 
finely  divided  calcareous  earth  to  be  thirty-two  grains. 

2.  One  thousand  grains  of  similar  soil  from  another  part  of  the  same 
field,  treated  in  the  same  manner,  gave  twenty-four  grains  of  finely  divided 
calcareous  earth. 

3.  From  the  east  end  of  a  small  island,  at  the  end  of  Coggins  Point, 
surrounded  by  the  river  and  tide  marsh.  Soil,  dark  brown  loam,  much 
lighter  than  the  preceding  specimens,  though  not  sandy — under  like  ex- 
hausting cultivation — then  capable  of  bringing  thirty  to  thirty-five  bushels 
of  corn — not  a  good  wheat  soil,  ten  or  twelve  bushels  being  probably  a  full 
crop.  One  thousand  grains  yielded  eight  grains  of  coarse  shelly  matter,  and 
eighty-two  of  finely  divided  calcareous  earth. 

4.  From  a  small  spot  of  sandy  soil,  almost  bare  of  vegetation,  and  inca- 
pable of  producing  any  grain,  though  in  the  midst  of  very  rich  land,  and 
cleared  but  a  few  years.  Some  small  fragments  of  fossil  sea-shells  being 
visible,  proved  this  barren  spot  to  be  calcareous,  which  induced  its  exa- 
mination. Four  hundred  grains  yielded  eighty-seven  of  calcareous  earth 
— nearly  twenty-two  per  cent.  This  soil  was  afterwards  dug  and  carried 
out  as  manure. 

5.  Black  friable  loam,  from  Indian  Fields,  on  York-river.  The  soil  was 
a  specimen  of  a  field  of  considerable  extent,  mixed  throughout  with  oyster 
shells.  Though  light  and  mellow,  the  soil  did  not  appear  to  be  sandy. 
Rich,  durable,  and  long  under  exhausting  cultivation. 

1260  grains  of  soil  yielded 
1 68     —     of  coarse  shelly  matter,  separated  mechanically, 

8     —    finely  divided  calcareous  earth. 
The  remaining  solid  matter,  carefully  separated,  (by  agitation^nd  settling 
in  water,)  consisted  of 
130  grains  of  fine  clay,  black  with  putrescent  matter,  and  which  lost  more 

than  one-fourth  of  its  weight  by  being  exposed  to  a  red  heat, 
875    —    white  sand,  moderately  fine, 
20    —    very  fine  sand, 
36    —    lost  in  the  process. 

1061 

6.  Oyster  shell  soil  of  the  best  quality,  from  the  farm  of  Wills  Cowper, 
Esq.,  on  Nansemond  river— never  manured,  and  supposed  to  have  been  cul- 
tivated in  corn  as  often  as  three  years  in  four,  since  the  first  settlement  of 
the  country— now  yields  (by  actual  measurement)  thirty  bushels  of  corn  to 
the  acre  — but  is  very  unproductive  in  wheat.  A  specimen  taken  from  the 
surface,  to  the  depth  of  six  inches,  weighed  altogether 

242  dwt.,  which  consisted  of 

126    —    of  shells  and  their  fragments,  separated  by  the  sieve, 
116    —    remaining  finely  divided  soil. 
Of  the  finely  divided  part,  500  grains  consisted  of 

18  grains  of  carbonate  of  lime, 
330    —    silicious  sand—  none  very  coarse, 

94    —    impalpable  aluminous  and  silicious  earth, 

35    —    putrescent  vegetable  matter—  none  coarse  or  unrotted, 

23    —    loss,1 

500 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY.  39 

It  is  unnecessary  to  cite  any  particular  trials  of  our  poor  soils,  as  it  has 
been  stated,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  that  all  are  entirely  destitute  of  calca- 
reous earth— excluding  the  rare,  but  well  marked  exceptions  of  its  great 
excess,  of  which  an  example  has  been  given  in  the  soil  marked  4,  in  the 
foregoing  examinations. 

Unless  then  I  am  mistaken  in  supposing  that  these  facts  are  universally 
true,  the  certain  results  of  chemical  analysis,  as  well  as  more  extended  ge- 
neral observation,  completely  establish  these  general  rules —  viz. : 

1st.  That  all  calcareous  soils  are  naturally  fertile  and  durable  in  a  very 
high  degree— and, 

2d.  That  all  soils  naturally  poor  are  entirely  destitute  of  calcareous 
earth. 

It  then  can  scarcely  be  denied  that  calcareous  earth  must  be  the  cause 
of  the  fertility  of  the  one  class  of  soils,  and  that  the  want  of  it  produces  the 
poverty  of  the  other,  dualities  that  always  thus  accompany  each  other 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  cause  and  effect.  If  further  proof  is  wanting,  it 
can  be  safely  promised  to  be  furnished  when  the  practical  application  of 
calcareous  manures  to  poor  soils  will  be  treated  of,  and  the  effects  stated. 

These  deductions  are  then  established  as  to  all  calcareous  soils,  and  all 
poor  soils— which  two  classes  comprise  nine-tenths  of  all.  This  alone 
would  open  a  wide  field  for  the  practical  exercise  of  the  truths  we  have 
reached.  But  still  there  remain  strong  objections  and  stubborn  facts  op- 
posed to  the  complete  proof  and  universal  application  of  the  proposition 
now  under  consideration,  and  consequently  to  the  theory  which  that  pro- 
position is  intended  to  support.  The  whole  difficulty  will  be  apparent  at 
once  when  I  now  proceed  to  state  that  nearly  all  of  our  best  soils,  such  as 
are  very  little  if  at  all  inferior  in  value  to  the  small  portion  of  shelly  lands, 
are  as  destitute  of  calcareous  earth  {carbonate  of  lime")  as  the  poorest.  So 
far  as  I  have  examined,  this  deficiency  is  no  less  general  in  the  richest 
alluvial  lands  of  the  upper  country— and,  what  will  be  deemed  by  some  as 
incredible,  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  rich  limestone  soils  between  the 
Blue  Ridge  anil  Alleghany  mountains  are  equally  destitute  of  calcareous 
earth.  These  facts  were  not  named  before,  to  avoid  embarrassing  the  dis- 
cussion of  other  points —  nor  can  they  now  be  explained,  and  reconciled 
with  my  proposition,  except  through  a  circuitous  and  apparently  digressive 
course  of  reasoning.  They  have  not  been  kept  out  of  view,  nor  slurred 
over,  to  weaken  their  force,  and  are  now  presented  in  all  their  strength. 
These  difficulties  will  be  considered,  and  removed,  in  the  following  chapters. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CHEMICAL  EXAMINATION  OF  RICH  SOILS  CONTAINING  NO  CALCAREOUS  EARTH. 

Proposition  2— continual. 

Under  common  circumstances,  when  any  disputant  admits  facts  that 
seem  to  contradict  his  own  reasoning,  such  admission  is  deemed  abundant 
evidence  of  their  existence.  But  though  now  placed  exactly  in  this  situa- 
tion, the  facts  admitted  by  me  are  so  opposed  to  all  that  scientific  agiicul- 
turists  have  taught  us  to  expect,  that  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  show  the 
grounds  on  which  my  admission  rests.  Few  would  have  believed  in  the 
absence  of  calcareous  earth  in  all  our  poor  soils,  forming  as  they  do  the 


40  CALCAREOUS  MAMRES— THEORY. 

much  larger  part  of  all  this  region — and  far  more  strange  is  it  that  the  same 
deficiency  should  extend  to  such  rich  soils  as  some  that  will  be  here  cited. 
The  following  specimens,  taken  from  well  known  and  very  fertile  soils, 
were  found  to  contain  no  calcareous  earth.  Many  trials  of  - 
have  yielded  like  results — and.  indeed,  I  hare  never  found  calcareous  earth 
in  any  soil  below  the  falls  of  the  rivers,  in  which,  or  near  which,  some  par- 
ticles of  shells  were  not  v.  5 

1.  Soil  from  Eppes'  Island,  which  lies  in  James-river,  near  City  Point; 
light  and  friable  (but  not  silicious)  brown  loam,  rich  and  durah'e.  The  sur- 
face is  not  many  feet  above  the  highest  tides,  and,  like  most  of  the  best  river 
lands,  this  tract  seems  to  have  been  formed  by  alluvion  many 

which  may  be  termed  recent,  when  compared  to  the  general  formation  of 
the  tide- water  district. 

2.  Black  siliriou=  loam  from  the  celebrated  lands  on  Back-river,  near 
Hampton. 

3.  Soil  from  rich  land  on  Pocoson-river,  York  county. 

4.  Black  clay  vegetable  soil,  from  a  fresh-water  tide  marsh  or 
river—  formed  by  recent  alluvion. 

5.  Alluvial  soil  of  first-rate  fertility  above  the  falls  of  James-river—  dark 
brown  clay  loam,  from  the  valuable  and  extensive  body  of  bottom  land 
belonging  to  General  J.  H.  Cocke,  of  Fluvanna. 

The  most  remarkable  facts  of  the  absence  of  calcareous  earth  are  to  be 
found  in  the  lime-stone  soils,  between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  Alleghany  moun- 
tains. Of  these.  I  will  report  all  that  I  have  examined ;  and  none  contained 
any  calcareous  earth,  unless  when  the  contrary  will  be  stal 

Before  the  first  of  these  trials  was  made,  I  supposed  (as  probably  most 
other  persons  do)  that  limestone  soil  was  necessarily  calcareous,  and  in  a 
high  degree.  It  is  difficult  to  get  rid  of  this  impression  entirely— and  it 
may  seem  a  contradiction  in  terms  to  sr.v  mi  is  not  calca- 

reous.    This  I  cannot  avoid.    I  must  take  the  te  mil  as  custom 

has  already  fixed  it.  But  it  should  not  be  extended  to  any  soils  except 
those  which  are  so  near  to  lime-stone  rock,  as  in  some  measure  to  be  there- 
by affected  in  their  qualities  and  value, 

1  to  6.  Lime-stone  soils  selected  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lexington,  Vir- 
ginia, by  Professor  Graham,  with  the  view  of  enabling  me  to  investigate 
this  subject  All  the  specimens  were  from  first-rate  soils,  except  one,  which 
was  from  land  of  inferior  value.  One  of  the  specimens,  Mr.  Graham's  de- 
scription stated  to  be  •'  taken  from  a  piece  of  land  so  rocky  [with  lime-stone] 
as  to  be  unfit  for  cultivation,  at  least  with  the  plough.  I  could  scarcely 
select  a  specimen  which  I  would  expect  to  be  more  -  ■••  -rnate'd 

with  calcareous  earth."      This  specimen,  by  two  separate  trials. 
only  one  grain  of  calcareous  earth,  from  one  thousand  of  soil.     The  other 
five  soils  contained  none.     The  same  result  was  obtained  from 

7.  A  specimen  of  alluvial  land  on  North-river,  near  Lexington. 

S.  Brown  loam  from  the  Sweet  Spring  valley,  remarkable  for  its  extra- 
ordinary productiveness  and  durability.  It  is  of  alluvial  formation,  and  be- 
fore it  was  drained,  must  have  been  often  covered  and  saturated  by  the 
Sweet  Spring  and  other  mineral  waters,  which  hold  lime  in  solution.  The 
surrounding  high  land  is  of  lime-stone  soil.  Of  this  specimen,  taken  from 
about  two  hundred  yards  below  the  Sweet  Spring,  from  land  long  culti- 
vated every  year,  three  hundred  and  sixty  grains  yielded  not  a  particle  of 
calcareous  earth.  It  contained  an  unusually  large  proportion  of  oxide  of 
iron,  though  my  imperfect  means  enabled  me  to  separate  and  collect  only 
eight  grains,  the  process  evidently  wasting  several  more. 

About  a  mile  lower  down,  drains  were  then  making  (in  1 S26)  to  reclaim 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY.  4 | 

more  of  this  rich  valley  from  the  overflowing  waters.  Another  specimen 
was  taken  from  the  bottom  of  a  ditch  just  opened,  eighteen  inches  below 
the  sin  1. ice.  It  was  a  black  loin, and  exhibited  to  the  eye  some  very  dimi- 
nutive fresh-water  shells,  (parriwinkles,  about  one  tenth  of  an  inch  in 
length,)  and  many  of  their  broken  fragments!  This  gave,  from  twotiun 
dred  grains,  seventy-four  of  calcareous  earth.  Bui  this  cannot  fairly  be 
placed  on  the  same  footing  with  the  other  soils,  as  it  had  obviously  been 
once  the  bottom  of  a  stream,  or  lake,  and  the  collection  and  depnsite  of,  so 
1  unusual  a  proportion  of  calcareous  matter  seemed  to  be  of  ani- 
mal formation.  Both  these  specimens  were  selected  at  my  request  by  one 
of  our  best  farmers,  and  who  also  furnisned  a  written  description  of  the 
soils,  and  their  situation. 

9.  Wood-land,  west  of  Union,  Monroe  county.  Soil,  a  black  clay  loam, 
lying  on,  but  not  intermixed  at  the  surface  with  lime-stone  rock.  Sub-soil, 
yellowish  clay.  The  rock  at  this  place,  a  foot  below  the  surface.  Principal 
growth,  sugar  maple,  white  walnut,  and  oak.  This  and  the  next  specimen 
are  from  one  of  the  richest  tracts  of  high  land  that  I  have  seen. 

10.  Soil  similar  to  the  last  and  about  two  hundred  yards  distant.  Here 
the  lime-stone  showed  above  the  surface,  and  the  specimen  was  taken  from 
between  two  large  masses  of  fixed  rock,  and  about  a  foot  distant  from 
each. 

1 1.  Black  rich  soil,  from  wood-land  between  the  Hot  and  Warm  Springs, 
in  Bath  county.  The  specimen  was  part  of  what  was  in  contact  with  a 
mass  of  lime-stone. 

12.  Soil  from  the  western  foot  of  the  Warm  Spring  mountain,  on  a  gen- 
tle slope  between  the  court-house  and  the  road,  and  about  one  hundred  ahd 
fifty  yards  from  the  Warm  Bath.  Rich  brown  loam,  containing  many 
small  pieces  of  lime-stone,  but  no  finely  divided  calcareous  earth. 

13.  A  specimen  taken  two  or  three  hundred  yards  from  the  last,  and 
also  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  Soil,  a  rich  black  loam,  full  of  small  frag- 
ments of  lime-stone  of  different  sizes,  between  that  of  a  nutmeg  and  small 
shot.  The  land  had  never  been  broken  up  for  cultivation.  One  thousand 
grains  contained  two  hundred  and  forty  grains  of  small  stone  or  gravel, 
mostly  lime-stone,  separated  mechanically,  and  sixty-nine  grains  of  finely 
divided  calcareous  earth. 

14.  Black  loamy  clay,  from  the  excellent  wheat  soil  adjoining  the  town 
of  Bedford,  in  Pennsylvania :  the  specimen  taken  from  beneath  and  in  con- 
tact with  lime-stone.  One  thousand  grains  yielded  less  than  one  grain  of 
calcareous  earth. 

1  ">.  A  specimen  from  within  a  few  yards  of  the  last,  but  not  in  contact 
with  lime-stone,  contained  no  calcareous  earth ;  neither  did  the  red  clay 
sub-soil,  six  inches  below  the  surface. 

1G.  Very  similar  soil,  but  much  deeper,  adjoining  the  principal  street  of 
Bedford— the  specimen  taken  from  eighteen  inches  below  the  surface,  and 
adjoining  a  mass  of  lime-stone.  A  very  small  disengagement  of  gas  indi- 
cated the  presence  of  calcareous  earth— but  certainly  less  than  one  grain  in 
one  thousand,  and  perhaps  not  half  that  quantity. 

17.  Alluvial  soil  on  the  Juniata,  adjoining  Bedford. 

18.  Alluvial  vegetable  soil  near  the  stream  flowing  from  all  the  Saratoga 
Mineral  Springs,  and  necessarily  often  covered  and  soaked  by  those  wa- 
ters, and 

19.  Soil  taken  from  the  bed  of  the  same  stream— neither  contained  any 
portion  of  carbonate  of  lime. 

Thus  it  appears  that  of  these  nineteen  specimens  of  soils,  only  four  con- 
tained calcareous  earth,  and  three^jf  these  four  in  exceedingly  small' pro- 


42  CALCAREOUS  MANCRES— THEORY. 

portions.  It  should  be  remarked  that  all  these  were  selected  from  situation; 
which,  from  their  proximity  to  calcareous  rock,  or  exposure  to  calcareous 
waters,  were  supposed  most  likely  to  present  highly  calcareous  soils.  If 
five  hundred  specimens  had  been  taken,  without  choice,  even  from  what  are 
commonly  called  lime-stone  soils,  (merely  because  they  are  not  very  distant 
from  lime-stone  rock,  or  springs  of  lime-stone  water,)  the  analysis  of  that 
whole  number  would  be  less  likely  to  show  calcareous  earth,  than  the  fore- 
going short  list.  I  therefore  feel  justified,  from  my  own  few  examinations, 
and  unsupported  by  any  other  authority,  to  pronounce  that  calcareous 
earth  will  very  rarely  be  found  in  any  soils  between  the  falls  of  our  rivers 
and  the  navigable  western  water's.  In  a  few  specimens  of  some  of  the  best 
soils  from  the  borders  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributary  rivers,  I  have 
since  found  calcareous  earth  present  in  all— but  in  very  small  proportions, 
and  in  no  case  exceeding  two  per  cent. 

When  the  total  deficiency  of  carbonate  of  lime,  in  nearly  all  the  soils  of 
Virginia,  was  first  asserted,  as  above,  in  the  earliest  publication  of  this 
essay,  (1821,  in  American  Farmer,  vol.  Hi.,)  the  proposition  was  so  entirely- 
new,  and  so  opposed  to  all  inferences  from  authority  then  existing,  that 
it  was  indispensably  necessary  t»  adduce  my  facts,  as  is  done  above,  to 
sustain  the  otherwise  unsustained  doctrine.  And  such  support,  for  the 
same  reason,  continued  to  be  wanting  through  the  two  next  editions.  Now 
(in  1842)  the  case  is  altogether  different.  The  fact  of  the  absence  of  car- 
bonate of  lime,  as  generally  as  I  had  assumed,  through  the  eastern  or 
seaward  slope  of  the  United  States,  and  especially  in  New  England,  has 
been  confirmed  by  all  the  analyses  of  soils  which  have  been  since  made 
by  Professor  Hitchcock  and  other  accurate  scientific  investigators ;  and  the 
proposition,  however  untenable  or  incredible  it  might  have  been  deemed 
before,  is  now  universally  admitted,  and  indeed  is  placed  beyond  question 
or  doubt,  as  an  important  feature  in  the  chemical  constitution  of  soils. 

The  only  soils  of  considerable  extent  of  surface  which,  from  the  speci- 
mens that  I  have  examined,  appear  to  be  highly  calcareous,  and  to  agree  in 
that  respect  with  many  European  soils,  are  from  the  prairies,  those  lands 
of  the  south-west  which,  whether  rich  or  poor,  are  remarkable  for  being  de- 
stitute of  trees,  and  covered  with  grass,  so  as  to  form  natural  meadows. 
The  examinations  were  made  but  recently,  (in  1834,)  and  are  reported 
because  presenting  striking  exceptions  to  the  general  constitution  of  soils 
in  this  country. 

20.  Prairie  soil  of  the  most  productive  kind  in  Alabama ;  a  black  clay, 
with  very  little  sand,  yet  so  far  from  being  stiff,  that  it  becomes  too  light 
by  cultivation.  This  kind  of  land  is  stated  by  the  friend  to  whom  I  am  in- 
debted for  the  specimens,  to  "  produce  corn  and  oats  most  luxuriantly  —  and 
also  cotton  for  two  or  three  years  ;  but  after  that  time  cotton  is  subject  to 
the  rust,  probably  from  the  then  open  state  of  the  soil,  which  by  cultivation 
has  by  that  time  become  as  light  and  as  soft  as  a  bank  of  ashes."  One 
hundred  grains  of  the  specimen  contained  eight  of  carbonate  of  lime.  All 
this  prairie  land  in  Alabama  lies  on  a  substratum  of  what  is  there  called 
"  rotten  lime-stone,"  (specimens  of  which  contained  seventy-two  to  eighty- 
two  per  cent,  of  lime,)  and  which  rises  to  the  surface  sometimes,  forming 
the  "bald  prairies,"  a  sample  of  the  soil  of  which  (21)  contained  fifty -nine 
per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime.  This  was  described  as  "  comparatively 
poor—  neither  trees  nor  bushes  grow  there,  and  only  grass  and  weeds  be- 
fore cultivation— corn  does  not  grow  well— small  grain  better— and  cotton 
soon  becomes  subject  to  the  rust."  The  excessive  proportion  of  calcareous 
earth  is  evidently  the  cause  of  its  barrenness. 

The  substratum  called  lime-stone  is^  soft  enough  to  be  cut  easily  and 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEOUY  43 

smoothly  with  a  knife,  and  some  of  it  is  in  appearance  and  texture  more 
like  the  chalk  of  Europe,  than  any  other  earth  that  I  have  seen  in  this 
country. 

22.  A  specimen  of  the  very  rich  "cane  brake"  lands  in  Marengo  county, 
Alabama,  contained  sixteen  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime.  This  is  a  kind 
of  prairie,  of  a  wetter  nature,  from  the  winter  rains  not  being  able  to  run 
off  from  the  level  surface,  nor  to  sink  through  the  tenacious  clay  soil,  and 
the  solid  stratum  of  lime-stone  below. 

23.  A  specimen  from  the  very  extensive  "  Choctaw  Prairie"  in  Missis- 
sippi, of  celebrated  fertility,  yielded  thirteen  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime. 

Several  other  specimens  of  different,  but  all  of  very  fertile  soils  from 
southern  Alabama,  and  all  lying  over  the  substratum  of  soft  lime-stone, 
were  found  to  be  neutral,  containing  not  a  particle  of  lime  in  the  form  of 
carbonate.     These  specimens  were  as  follows— 

24.  One  from  the  valley  cane  land—  "  very  wet  through  the  winter,  but 
always  dry  in  summer—  and  after  being  ditched  is  dry  enough  to  be  culti- 
vated in  cotton,  which  will  grow  from  eight  to  twelve  feet  high." 

25.  Another  from  what  is  called  the  best  "  post-oak  land,"  on  which  trees 
of  that  kind  grow  to  the  size  of  from  two  to  four  feet  in  diameter—  having 
but  little  underwood,  and  no  cane  growth  — "  thought  to  be  nearly  as  rich 
as  the  best  cane  land,  and  will  produce  1500  lbs.,  or  more,  of  seed  cotton, 
or  fifty  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre." 

26.  Another  from  what  is  termed  "  palmetto  land,  having  on  it  that  plant 
as  well  as  a  heavy  cover  of  large  trees  growing  luxuriantly.  It  is  a  cold 
and  wet  soil  before  being  brought  into  good  tilth ;  but  afterwards  is  soft 
and  easy  to  till,  and  produces  corn  and  cotton  finely.  The  cane  on  it  is 
generally  small :  the  soil  from  four  to  ten  feet  deep."* 

One  more  prairie  soil  only  will  be  adduced,  from  many  analyses  which 
have  furnished  general  results  like  the  foregoing,  (20  to  26);  and  this  one  is 
given  because  it  serves  as  a  fair  specimen  of  a  very  large  class  of  the 
prairie  lands.  It  was  selected  by  Dr.  R.  W.  Withers,  in  1835,  and  de- 
scribed by  him  as  follows :  {Farmers'  Register,  voL  Hi.,  p.  498.) 

Soil  of  Greene  county,  Alabama,  "  from  our  open  or  bald  prairie,  [1.  e., 
totally  without  trees,]  which  has  been  cultivated  for  seven  or  eight  years — 
produces  corn  very  well — nearly  fifty  bushels  to  the  acre  are  now  stand- 
ing on  the  ground ;  but  cotton  does  not  produce  so  well  on  it  as  on  poor 
sandy  soil.  I  feel  very  confident  that  this  specimen  is  highly  calcareous,  as 
there  are  many  fragments  of  shells  mixed  with  the  soil,  and  the  rock  is  not 
two  feet  from  the  surface.  Of  all  the  specimens  hitherto  sent,  this  is  the 
one  which  will  give  the  nearest  approach  to  the  general  character  of  our 
open  prairie  land  in  this  part  of  the  country." — This  specimen  was  found 
to  contain  33  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime. 

The  foregoing  details,  respecting  lime-stone  lands,  may  perhaps  be  consi- 
dered an  unnecessary  digression,  in  a  treatise  on  the  soils  of  the  tide-water 
district.     But  the  analysis  of  lime-stone  soils  furnishes  the  strongest  evi- 

•  It  is  proper  to  mention  a  circumstance  which  may  have  had  some  effect  in  remov- 
ing the  carbonate  of  lime  from  these  Alabama  soils,  besides  the  more  general  causes 
which  will  be  traced  in  the  next  chapter.  With  these  specimens  of  soil  was  sent  a 
collection  of  the  small  stones  and  gravel  which  were  stated  to  be  found  generally  through 
these  soils,  and  particularly  in  the  clay  sub-soil  beuealh.  Among  these  there  were  se- 
veral fragments  of  sulphuret  of  iron.  This  mineral,  when  decomposing  in  the  earth  in 
contact  with  carbonate  oflime,  also  decomposes  the  latter  substance,  and  forms  sulphate 
of  lime,  (gypsum,)  instead.  It  is  well  worth  inquiry  whether  sulphuret  of  iron  is  gene- 
rally found  in  these  soils.  It  may  be  known  by  its  great  weight,  and  metallic  lustre 
when  broken,  (which  has  caused  it  often  to  be  mistaken  for  silver  ore,)  and  by  giving 
out  fumes  of  burning  sulphur  when  subjected  to  strong  heat  under  a  blow  pipe. 


44  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 

dence  of  the  remarkable  and  novel  fact  of  the  general  absence  of  calca- 
reous earth — and  the  information  thence  derived  will  be  used  to  sustain 
the  following  steps  of  my  argument. 

All  the  examinations  of  soils  in  this  chapter  concur  in  opposing  the  ge- 
nera] application  of  the  proposition  that  the  deficiency  of  calcareous  earth 
is  the  cause  of  the  sterility  of  our  soils.  And  having  stated  the  objection  in 
all  its  force,  I  shall  now  proceed  to  inquire  into  its  causes,  and  endeavor  to 
dispel  its  apparent  opposition  to  my  doctrine. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PROOFS  OP  THE  EXISTENCE  OP  ACID  AND  NEUTRAL  SOILS. 

Proposition  2 — continued. 

Sufficient  evidence  has  been  adduced  to  prove  that  many  of  our  most 
fertile  and  valuable  soils  are  destitute  of  calcareous  earth.  But  it  does  not 
necessarily  follow  that  such  has  always  been  their  composition ;  or  that 
they  may  not  now  contain  lime  combined  with  some  other  acid  than  the 
carbonic.  That  this  is  really  the  case,  I  shall  now  offer  proofs  to  establish ; 
and  not  only  maintain  this  position  with  regard  to  those  valuable  soils,  but 
shall  contend  that  lime,  in  some  proportion,  combined  with  vegetable  acid,  is 
present  in  every  soil  capable  of  supporting  vegetation. 

But  while 'I  shall  endeavor  to  maintain  these  positions,  without  asking  or 
even  admitting  any  exception,  let  me  not  be  understood  as  asserting  that 
the  original  ingredient  of  calcareous  earth  was  always  the  sole  cause  of 
the  fertility  of  any  particular  soil,  or  that  a  knowledge  of  the  proportion 
contained,  would  serve  to  measure  the  capacity  of  the  soil  for  improvement. 
Calcareous  soils,  not  differing  materially  in  qualities  or  value,  often  exhibit 
a  remarkable  difference  in  their  respective  proportions  of  calcareous  earth ; 
so  that  it  would  seem  that  a  small  quantity,  aided  by  some  other  unknown 
agent,  or  perhaps  by  time,  may  give  as  much  capacity  for  improvement, 
and  ultimately  produce  as  much  fertility,  as  ten  times  that  proportion,  under 
other  circumstances. 

In  all  naturally  poor  soils,  producing  freely  pine  and  whortleberry  in 
their  virgin  state,  and  sheep  sorrel  after  cultivation,  I  suppose  to  have  been 
formed  some  vegetable  add,  which,  after  taking  up  whatever  small  quantity 
of  lime  might  have  been  present,  still  remains  in  excess  in  the  soil,  and 
nourishes  in  the  highest  degree  the  plants  named  above,  but  is  a  poison  to 
all  useful  crops ;  and  effectually  prevents  such  soils  becoming  rich,  by 
either  natural  or  artificial  applications  of  putrescent  manures. 

In  a  neutral  soil.  I  suppose  calcareous  earth  to  have  been  sufficiently 
abundant  at  some  former  time  to  produce  a  high  degree  of  fertility—  but 
that  it  has  been  decomposed,  and  the  lime  taken  up,  by  the  gradual  forma- 
tion of  vegetable  acid,  until  the  lime  and  the  acid  neutralize  and  balance 
each  other,  leaving  no  considerable  excess  of  either  ;  and  that  such  are  all 
our  fertile  soils  which  are  not  now  calcareous. 

These  suppositions  remain  to  be  proved,  in  all  their  parts. 

No  opinion  has  been  yet  advanced  that  is  less  supported  by  good 
authority,  or  to  which  more  general  opposition  may  be  expected,  than  that 
which  supposes  the  existence  of  acid  soils.  The  term  sour  soil  is  frequently 
used  by  farmers,  but  in  so  loose  a  manner  as  to  deserve  no  consideration. 
It  has  been  thus  applied  to  any  cold  and  ungrateful  land,  without  intending 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THBOM  .].r, 

that  the  term  should  be  literally  understood,  and  perhaps  without  attaching 
to  its  use  any  precise  meaning  whatever.  Dundonald  only,  of  all  those 
who  have  applied  chemistry  to  agriculture,  has  asserted  the  existence  of 
Vegetable  acid  in  soils:'    both  red   DO  analysis  of  soils  in  proof, 

nor  any  other  evidence  to  establish  the  fact ;  and  his  opinion  has  received 
no  confirmation,  nor  even  the  slightest  notice,  from  later  and  more  able  in- 
rators  of  the  chemical  characters  of  soils.  Kirwan  and  Davy  profess 
to  enumerate  all  the  common  Ingredients  of  soils ;  and  it  is  not  intimated 
by  either  that  vegetable  acid  is  one  of  them.  Even  this  tacit  denial  by 
l  law  mi  ire  strongly  opposes  ill"  existence  of  vegetable  acid,  than  it  is  sup- 
ported  by  the  opinion  of  Dundonald,  or  any  of  those  writers  on  agricul- 
ture who  have  admitted  its  existence.  For  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  so 
able  and  profound  an  investigator  would  have  omitted  all  reference  to  an 
Ingredient  of  soils  so  general,  and  therefore  so  important,  as  is  here  asserted, 
even  if  its  presence  had  been  ever  suspected  by  him,  much  less  known. 
Grisenthwaite,  a  late  writer  on  agricultural  chemistry,  and  who  has  the  ad- 
vantage of  knowing  the  discoveries,  and  comparing  tin-  opinions,  of  all  his 
cssors,  expressly  denies  the  possibility  of  any  acid  existing  in  soils, 
llis  New  *  Theory  ef  Agriculture''  contains  the  following  passage :  "Chalk 
has  been  recommended  as  a  substance  calculated  to  correct  the  sourness 
of  land.  It  would  surely  have  been  a  wise  practice  to  bave  previously  as- 
certained this  existence  of  acid,  and  to  have  determined  Its  nature,  in  order 
that  it  might  be  effectually  removed.  The  diet  really  is,  that  no  soil  was 
ever  yet  found  to  contain  any  notable  quantity  of  acid.  The  acetic  and 
the  carbonic  are  the  only  two  that  are  likely  to  l»-  generated  by  any  spon- 
taneous decomposition  of  animal  or  vegetable  bodies,  and  neither  of  them 
have  any  fixity  when  exposed  to  the  air."  Thus,  then,  my  doctrine  is  de- 
prived n|  even  the  feeble  support  it  might  have  had  from  I  lundonald's  mere 
opinion,  it'  that  opinion  had  QOt  been  contradicted  bv  later  and  better 
authority  :  and  the  only  support  that  I  can  look  lor,  will  be  in  the  facts  and 
arguments  thai  I  Bhall  be  able  to  adduce. 

1  am  not  prepared  to  question  whal  Grisenthwaite  states  as  a  chemical 
fact,  "  that  no  soil  was  ever  yel  found  to  contain  any  notable  quantity  of 
.11  i,i.''  Wo  soil  examined  by  me  for  tins  purpose  gave  any  evidence  of  the 
presence  of  uncombined  acid,  still,  however,  the  term  add  may  be  ap- 
plied with  propriety  to  soils  in  which  growing  vegetables  continually  receive 
from  the  decomposition  oi  others,  (for  which  no  "fixity"  is  requisite,)  or 
in  which  acid  is  present,  not  nee,  but  combined  with  some  base,  by  which 
it  is  readily  yielded  to  promote,  or  retard,  the  growth  of  plants  in  contact 
with  it.    It  will  be  sufficient  for  my  po  .,  that  certain 

tain  some  substance,  or  possess  some  quality,  which  promotes  almost  ev- 
•  lusively  the  growth  of  acid  plants  -that  this  powei  is  strengthened  by 
adding  known  vegetable  acidBto  the  soil— and  is  totally  removed  by  the 
application  of  calcareous  manures,  which  would  necessarily  destroy  any 
.11  nl.  if  it  were  present  Leaving  fl  to  chemists  to  determine  the  nature 
and  properties  of  this  substance,  I  merely  contend  for  its  existence  and 
effects;  and  the  cause  "I  these  effects,  whatever  it  may  be,  lor  the  want  of 
a  belter  ii. mie,  I  shall  call  acidity. 

The  proofs  now  to  be  offered  in  support  ol  the  existence  ol 

neutral  soils,  Iniuever  weak  e.n  Ii  may  be  when  Considered  alone.  \  el,  9  hen 

taken  in  connexion,  will  together  form  a  body  of  evidence  not  easily  to  be 
resisted. 
First  proof. — Pine  an  1  i  ommOD  sorrel  have  leaves  well  known  to  be  acid 

'  Dundonald's  Connexion  of  Chemistry  and  Agriculture. 
6 


46  CALCAHEOD8  -MAM  RES— THEOKY 

to  the  taste ;  and  their  growth  is  favored  by  the  soils  which  I  suppose  to 
be  acid,  to  an  extent  which  would  be  thought  remarkable  in  other  plants 
on  the  richest  soils.  Except  wild  locust  on  the  best  river  land,  no  growth 
can  compare  in  rapidity  with  pines  on  soils  naturally  poor,  and  even  greatly 
reduced  by  long  cultivation.  Pines  usually  stand  so  thick,  on  old  exhaust- 
ed fields,  that  the  increase  of  size  in  each  plant  is  greatly  retarded  ;  but  if 
the  whole  growth  of  an  acre  were  estimated,  it  would  probably  exceed  in 
quantity  the  different  growth  of  the  richest  soils,  of  the  same  age  and  on 
an  equal  space.  Even'  cultivator  of  corn  on  poor  light  soil  knows  how 
rapidly  sorrel*  will  cover  his  otherwise  naked  field,  unless  kept  in  check  by 
continual  tillage—  and  that  to  root  it  out,  so  as  to  prevent  the  like  future 
labor,  cannot  be  effected  by  any  mode  of  cultivation  whatever.  This  weed 
too  is  considered  far  more  hurtful  to  growing  crops,  than  any  other  of  equal 
size.  Yet  neither  of  these  acid  plants  can  thrive  on  the  best  lands.  Sorrel 
cannot  even  live  on  a  calcareous  soil ;  and  if  a  pine  is  sometimes  found 
there,  it  has  nothing  of  its  usual  elegant  form,  but  seems  as  stunted  and  ill- 
shaped  as  if  it  had  always  suffered  for  want  of  nourishment  Innume- 
rable facts,  of  which  these  are  examples,  prove  that  these  acid  plants  must 
derive  from  their  favorite  soil  some  kind  of  food  peculiarly  suited  to  their 
growth,  and  quite  useless,  if  not  hurtful,  to  cultivated  crops. 

2nd.  Dead  acid  plants  are  the  most  effectual  in  promoting  the  growth  of 
living  ones.  When  pine  leaves  are  applied  to  a  soil,  whatever  acid  they 
eontain  is  of  course  given  to  that  soil,  for  such  time  as  circumstances  per- 
mit it  to  retain  its  form,  or  peculiar  properties.  Such  an  application  is  often 
made  on  a  large  scale,  by  cutting  down  the  second  growth  of  pines,  on 
land  once  under  tillage,  and  suffering  them  to  lie  a  year  before  cleaning 
and  cultivating  the  land.  The  invariable  consequence  of  this  course  is  a 
growth  of  sorrel,  for  one  or  two  years,  so  abundant  and  so  injurious  to  the 
crops,  as  to  more  than  balance  any  benefit  derived  by  the  soil  from  the 
vegetable  matter  having  been  allowed  to  rot.  From  the  general  experience 
of  this  effect,  most  persons  put  pine  land  under  tillage  as  soon  as  cut  down, 
after  carefully  burning  (to  destroy)  the  whole  of  the  heavy  cover  of  leaves, 
•both  green  and  dry.  Until  within  a  few  years,  it  was  generally  supposed 
that  the  leaves  of  pine  were  worthless,  if  not  hurtful,  in  all  applications  to 
cultivated  land— which  opinion  doubtless  was  founded  on  such  facts  as 
have  been  just  stated.  But  if  they  are  used  as  litter  for  cattle,  and  heaped 
to  ferment,  the  injurious  quality  of  pine  leaves  is  destroyed,  and  they  be- 
come a  valuable  manure.  This  practice  is  but  of  recent  origin—  but  is 
highly  approved,  and  rapidly  extending.  Still  later  it  has  been  found  that 
when  these  leares  are  applied  unrotted,  as  raked  up  in  wood-land,  to  calca- 
reous land,  they  produce  only  and  always  beneficial  results;  and  that  this 
is  the  best  as  well  as  cheapest  mode  of  their  application. 

On  one  of  the  washed  and  barren  declivities  (or  palls)  which  are  so  nu- 
merous on  all  our  farms,  I  had  the  small  gullies  packed  full  of  green  pine 
bushes,  and  then  covered  with  the  earth  drawn  from  the  equally  barren 
intervening  ridges,  so  as  nearly  to  smooth  the  whole  surface.  The  whole 
piece  had  borne  nothing  previously  except  a  few  scattered  tufts  of  poverty 
grass,  and  dwarfish  sorrel,  all  of  which  did  not  prevent  the  spot  seeming 
quite  bare  at  mid-summer,  if  viewed  at  the  distance  of  one  hundred  yards. 
This  operation  was  performed  in  February  or  March.    The  land  was  not 

*  Sheep  sorrel,  or  Rumex  actlota.  The  wood  sorrel  ( Ozalis  aaixxiUa)  is  of  a  very 
different  character.  Tbe  latter  prefers  rich  and  even  calcareous  soils,  and  I  have 
seen  it  growing  well  on  places  calcareous  to  excess.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that 
wood  sorrel  forms  itj  acid  from  the  atmosphere,  and  does  not  draw  it  from  the  soil,  as 
I  suppose  to  be  the  case  with  common  sorrel. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY.  47 

cultivated,  ivir  again  observed,  until  the  set d  summer  afterwards.    At 

that  time,  the  piece  remained  as  hare  as  formerly,  except  along  the  filled 
irulf  if-s:.  which,  throughout  the  whole  of  their  crooked  courses,  were  covered 

by  a  (hick  and  inn imonly  tall  growth  of  sorrel,  remarkably  luxuriant  for 

any  situation,  and  which,  being  bounded  exaj  Hy  by  the  width  of  the  nar- 
row gullies,  had  the  appearance  of  some  vegetable  sown  thickly  in  drills, 
and  kept  clean  by  tillage  So  groat  an  oiled  of  this  kind  has  not  been 
produced  within  my  knowledge— though  facts  of  like  nature,  and  leading 
to  the  same  conclusion,  are  of  frequent  occurrence.  If  small  pines  stand- 
ing thinly  over  a  broom-grass  old-field  are  cut  down  and  left  to  lie,  under 
every  top  will  he  found  a  patch  of  sorrel,  before  the  leaves  have  all  rotted. 

'■'11I.  The  growth  of  sorrel  is  not  only  peculiarly  favored  by  the  application 
of  vegetables  containing  acids  already  formed,  but  also  by  such  matters 
as  will  form  acid  in  the  course  of  their  decomposition.  Farm-yard  manure, 
and  all  other  putrescent  animal  and  vegetable  substances,  form  acetic  acid 
as  their  decomposition  proceeds.*  If  heaps  of  rotting  manure  are  left 
without  being  spread,  in  a  held  but  very  slightly  subject  to  produce  sorrel, 
a  few  weeks  of  growing  weather  will  bring  oat  that  plant  close  around 
every  heap;  and  for  some  time  the  sorrel  will  continue  to  show  more  bene- 
fit from  that  rank  manuring  than  any  other  grass.  For  several  years  my  win- 
ter-made manure  was  spread  and  ploughed  in  on  land  not  cultivated  until  the 
next  autumn,  or  the  spring  after.  This  practice  was  founded  on  the  mis- 
taken opinion,  that  it  would  prevent  much  of  the  usual  exposure  to  evapo- 
ration and  waste  of  the  manure.  One  of  the  reasons  which  alone  would 
have  compelled  me  to  abandon  this  absurd  practice  was,  that  a  crop  of 
sorrel  always  followed,  (even  on  good  soils  that  before  barely  permitted  a 
scanty  growth  of  it  to  live,)  which  so  injured  the  next  grain  crop  as  greatly 
to  lessen  the  benefit  from  the  manure.  Sorrel  unnaturally  produced  by 
such  applications  does  not  infest  the  land  longer  than  until  we  may  suppose 
the  acid  to  have  been  removed  by  cultivation  and  other  causes. 

It  may  be  objected,  that  even  if  fully  admitted,  my  authorities  prove  only 
the  formation  of  a  single  vegetable  acid  in  soil,  the  acetic— that  my  facts 
show  only  the  production  of  a  single  acid  plant,  sorrel — and  that  the  acid 
which  sorrel  contains  is  not  the  acetic,  but  the  oxalic,  f  In  reply  to  such 
objections,  it  may  be  said,  that  from  the  application  of  acids  to  recently 
ploughed  land,  no  acid  plant  except  sorrel  is  made  to  grow,  because  that 
one  only  can  spring  up  speedily  enough  to  arrest  the  fleeting  nutriment. 
Poverty  grass  (Aristida  gracilis  or  .  I.  dichotoma)  grows  only  on  the  same 
kinds  of  soil,  and  generally  covers  them  after  they  have  been  a  year  free 
from  a  crop,  but  does  not  show  sooner;  and  pines  require  two  years  before 
their  seeds  will  produce  plants.  But  when  pines  begin  to  spread  over  the 
land,  they  soon  put  an  end  to  the  growth  of  all  other  plants,  and  are  abun- 
dantly supplied  with  their  acid  food,  from  the  dropping  of  their  own  leaves. 
Thus  they  may  be  first  supplied  with  the  vegetable  acid  ready  formed  in 
the  leaves,  and  afterwards  with  the  acetic  acid  formed  by  their  subsequent 
slow  decomposition.  It  does  not  weaken  my  argument  that  the  product 
of  a  plant  is  a  vegetable  acid  different  from  the  one  supposed  to  have  nou- 
rished its  growth.  All  vegetable  acids  (except  the  prussic)  however  diffe- 
rent in  their  properties,  are  composed  of  the  same  three  elementary  bodies, 
differing  only  in  their  proportions}  —  and  consequently  are  all  convertible 
into  each  other.     A  little  more,  or  a   little  less  of  one  or   the  other  of  these 

•  Agr.  Chem.  p.  1S7.  (Phil,  ed.) 

t  Agr.  Chem.  Lecture  3. 

X  Carbon,  oxygen,  and  hydrogen.     Agr.  Chem.  Lecture  3,  p.  78. 


48  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 

ingredients,  may  change  the  acetic  to  the  oxalic  acid,  and  that  to  any  other. 
We  cannot  doubt  but  that  such  simple  changes  may  be  produced  by  the 
chemical  powers  of  vegetation,  when  others  are  effected  far  more  difficult 
for  us  to  comprehend.  The  most  tender  and  feeble  organs,  and  the  mildest 
juices,  aided  by  the  power  of  animal  or  vegetable  life,  are  able  to  produce 
decompositions  and  combinations  which  the  chemist  cannot  explain,  and 
which  he  would  in  vain  attempt  to  imitate. 

■ith.  This  ingredient  of  soils,  which  nourishes  acid  plants,  also  poisons  cul- 
tivated crops.  Plants  have  not  the  power  of  rejecting  noxious  fluids,  but 
take  up  by  their  roots  every  thing  presented  in  a  soluble  form.*  Thus  the 
acid  also  enters  the  sap-vessels  of  cultivated  plants,  stints  their  growth,  and 
makes  it  impossible  for  them  to  attain  that  size  and  perfection  which  their 
proper  food  would  ensure,  if  it  were  presented  to  them  without  its  poi- 
sonous accompaniment.  When  the  poorest  virgin  wood-land  is  cut  down, 
it  is  covered  and  filled  to  excess  with  leaves  and  other  rotted  and  rotting 
vegetable  matters.  Can  a  heavier  vegetable  manuring  be  desired  1  And 
as  this  completely  rots  during  cultivation,  must  it  not  offer  to  the  growing 
plants  as  abundant  a  supply  of  food  as  they  can  require  1  Yet  the  best 
product  obtained  may  be  from  ten  to  fifteen  bushels  of  corn,  or  five  or  six 
of  wheat,  soon  to  come  down  to  half  those  quantities.  If  the  noxious 
quality  which  causes  such  injury  is  an  acid,  it  is  as  certain  as  any  chemical 
truth  whatever,  that  it  will  be  neutralized,  and  its  powers  destroyed,  by 
applying  enough  of  calcareous  earth  to  the  soil ;  and  precisely  such  effects 
are  found  whenever  that  remedy  is  tried.  On  land  thus  relieved  of  this 
unceasing  annoyance,  the  young  plants  of  corn  no  longer  appear  of  a 
pale  and  sickly  green,  approaching  to  yellow,  but  take  immediately  a  deep 
healthy  color,  by  which  it  may  readily  be  distinguished  from  any  on  soil 
left  in  its  former  state,  before  there  is  any  perceptible  difference  in  the  size 
of  the  plants.  The  crop  will  produce  fifty  to  one  hundred  per  cent  more, 
the  first  year,  before  its  supply  of  food  can  possibly  have  been  increased ; 
and  the  soil  is  soon  found  not  only  cleared  of  sorrel,  but  absolutely  incapa- 
ble of  producing  it.  I  have  anticipated  these  effects  of  calcareous  manures, 
before  furnishing  the  evidence;  but  they  will  hereafter  be  established  by 
facts  beyond  contradiction. 

The  truth  of  the  existence  of  either  acid  or  neutral  soils  depends  on  the 
existence  of  the  other ;  and  to  prove  either,  will  necessarily  establish  both. 
If  acid  exists  in  soils,  then  whenever  it  meets  with  calcareous  earth,  the  two 
substances  must  combine  with  and  neutralize  each  other,  so  far  as  their 
proportions  are  properly  adjusted.  On  the  other  hand,  if  I  can  show  that 
compounds  of  lime  and  vegetable  acid  are  present  in  most  soils,  it  follows 
inevitably  that  nature  has  provided  means  by  which  soils  can  generally 
obtain  this  acid ;  and  if  the  amount  formed  can  balance  the  lime,  the  opera- 
tion of  the  same  causes  can  exceed  that  quantity,  and  leave  an  excess  of 
free  acid.     From  these  premises  will  be  deduced  the  following  proofs. 

5th.  It  has  been  stated  (page  36)  that  the  process  recommended  by  chemists 
for  finding  the  calcareous  earth  in  soils  was  unfit  for  that  purpose,  because 
some  precipitate  was  always  obtained,  even  when  no  calcareous  earth  or 
carbonate  of  lime  was  present.  Frequent  trials  have  shown  me  that  this 
precipitate  is  considerably  more  abundant  from  good  soils  than  bad.  The 
substance  thus  obtained  from  rich  soils  by  solution  and  precipitation,  in 
every  case  that  I  have  tried,  contains  some  carbonate  of  lime,  although 
the  soil  from  which  it  was  derived  had  none.  The  alkaline  liquor  from 
which  the  precipitate  has  been  separated,  we  are  told  by  Davy,  will,  after 

*  Agr.  Chem.  Lecture  6,  page  186. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY.  49 

boiling,  lot  fall  the  carbonate  "i  magnesia,  h  any  had  1 n  in  the  soil ;  but 

when  any  notable  deposite  is  thus  obtained,  it  will  often  be  found  to  con- 
sist mure  of  carbonate  of  lime,  than  of  magnesia  The  following  am  ex- 
amples "i  such  products : 

One  thousand  grains  of  tide-marsh  soil,  (page  40,  No.  I,)  acted  on  by 
muriatic  add  in  the  pneumatic  apparatus,  gave  out  no  carbonic  acid  gas, 
ami  therefore  could  have  contained  no  carbonate  of  lime.  The  precipitate 
obtained  from  tin  same  weighed  sixteen  grains;  which  being  again  acted 
on  by  sulphuric  acid,  evolved  as  much  gas  as  showed  thai  three  grains  had 
become  carbonate  of  lime,  in  the  previous  part  of  the  process. 

Two  hundred  grains  of  alluvial  soil  from  Saratoga  Springs  (page  -II  No. 
18,)  containing  no  carbonate  of  lime,  yielded  a  precipitate  of  twelve  grains, 
of  which  three  was  carbonate  of  lime — and  a  deposite  from  the  alkaline 
solution  weighing  six  grains,  four  of  which  was  carbonate  of  lime. 

Seven  hundred  grains  of  limestone  soil  from  Bedford,  Pennsylvania, 
(part  of  the  specimen  marked  II,  page  41,)  contained  about  two-thirds  of  a 
grain  of  carbonate  of  lime— and  its  precipitate  of  twenty-eight  grains,  only 
yielded  two  grains:  but  the  alkaline  solution  deposited  eleven  grains  of  the 
carbonates  of  lime  and  magnesia,  of  which  at  least  live  was  of  the  former, 
as  there  remained  seven  and  a  half  of  solid  matter,  after  the  action  of  sul- 
phuric acid.* 

From  this  process,  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  soil  contained  a 
proportion  of  some  milt  nf  linn;  (or  lime  combined  with  some  kind  of  acid,) 
which  being  decomposed  by  and  combined  with  the  muriatic  acid,  was 
then  precipitated,  not  in  its  first  form,  but  in  that  of  carbonate  of  lime— it 
being  supplied  with  carbonic  acid  from  the  carbonate  of  potash  used  to 
produce  the  precipitation.  The  proportions  obtained  in  these  cases  were 
small;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the  whole  quantity  of  lime  contained  in 
the  soil  was  found.  However,  to  the  extent  of  this  small  proportion  of 
lime,  is  proved  clearly  the  presence  of  enough  of  some  acid  (and  that  not 
the  carbonic)  to  combine  with  it.  Neither  could  it  have  been  the  sulphuric, 
or  the  phosphoric  acid ;  for  though  both  the  sulphate  and  phosphate  of  lime 
are  in  some  soils,  yet  neither  of  these  salts  can  be  decomposed  by  muriatic 
acid. 

6th.  The  strongest  objection  to  the  doctrine  of  neutral  soils  is,  that,  if  true, 
the  salt  formed  by  the  combination  of  the  lime  and  acid  must  often  be  pre- 
sent in  such  large  proportions,  that  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  its  presence 
and  nature  should  not  have  been  discovered  by  any  of  the  able  chemists 
who  have  analyzed  soils.  This  difficulty  I  cannot  remove,  but  it  maybe 
met  (or  neutralized,  to  borrow  a  figure  from  my  subject,)  by  showing  that 
an  equal  difficulty  awaits  those  who  may  support  the  other  side  of  the 
argument. 

The  theory  of  geologists  of  the  formation  of  soils,  from  the  decomposi- 

•  The  measurement  of  the  carbonic  acid  gas  evolved  was  relied  on  to  show  the  whole 
amount  of  carbonates  present— and  sulphuric  acid  was  used  to  distinguish  between 
lime  and  magnesia,  in  the  deposite  from  the  alkaline  solution.  If  any  alumina  or 
magnesia  had  made  part  of  the  solid  matter  exposed  to  diluted  sulphuric  acid,  the  com- 
binations formed  would  have  been  soluble  salts,  which  would  of  course  have  remained 
dissolved  and  invisible  in  the  fluid.  Lime  only,  of  the  four  earths,  forms  with  sulphuric 
acid  a  substance  but  slightly  soluble,  and  which  therefore  can  be  mostly  separated  in  a 
solid  form.  The  whole  of  thi^  Bubstance  (sulphate  of  lime)  cannot  be  obtained  in  tln< 
manner,  as  a  part  is  always  dissolved  ;  but  whatever  is  obtained,  proves  that  at  least 
two-thirds  of  that  quantity  of  carbonate  of  lime  bad  been  present;  as  that  quantity  "I 
lime  which  will  combine  with  enough  carbonic  acid  to  make  100  parts  (by  weight  1  ..1 
carbonate  of  lime,  will  combine  with  so  moch  more  of  sulphuric  acid,  as  to  form  about 
150  parts  of  the  sulphate  of  lime,  or  g\  DSDD1 


50  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY. 

tion  or  disintegration  of  rocks,  is  received  as  true  by  scientific  agricul- 
turists. The  soils  thus  supposed  to  be  formed,  receive  admixtures  from 
each  other,  by  means  of  different  operations  of  nature,  and  after  being 
more  or  less  enriched  by  the  decay  of  their  own  vegetable  products,  make 
the  endless  variety  of  existing  soils.*  But  where  a  soil,  lying  on  and  thus 
supposed  to  have  been  formed  from  an}'  particular  kind  of  rock,  is  so  situ- 
ated that  it  could  not  have  been  moved,  or  received  considerable  accessions 
from  torrents  or  other  agents,  then,  according  to  this  theory,  the  rock  and 
the  soil  should  be  composed  of  the  same  materials ;  and  such  soils  as  the 
specimens,  marked  1 1  and  16,  (page  41.)  would  be,  like  the  rock  they  touch- 
ed, nearly  pure  calcareous  earth,  instead  of  being  (as  they  were  in  truth) 
destitute,  or  nearly  so,  of  that  ingredient.  Such  are  the  doctrines  received 
and  taught  by  Davy,  or  the  unavoidable  deductions  from  them.  But,  with- 
out contending  for  the  full  extent  of  this  theory  of  the  formation  of  soils, 
(because  I  consider  it  almost  entirely  false,)  every  one  must  admit  that  soils 
thus  situated  must  have  received,  in  the  lapse  of  ages,  some  accessions  to 
their  bulk,  from  the  effects  of  frost,  rain,  sun,  and  air,  on  the  lime-stone  in 
contact  with  them.  All  lime-stone  soils,  properly  so  called,  exhibit  certain 
marked  and  peculiar  characters  of  color,  texture,  and  products,  which  can 
only  be  derived  from  receiving  into  their  composition  more  or  less  of  the 
rock  which  lies  beneath,  or  rises  above  their  surface.  This  mixture  will 
not  be  denied  by  any  one  who  has  observed  lime-stone  soils,  and  reasons 
fairly,  whether  his  investigation  begins  with  the  causes,  or  their  effects.  If 
then  all  this  accession  of  calcareous  earth  remains  in  the  soil,  why  is  it  that 
none,  or  almost  none,  is  discovered  by  accurate  chemical  analysis  1  Or,  if 
it  be  supposed  not  present,  nor  yet  changed  in  its  chemical  character,  in 
what  possible  manner  could  a  ponderous  and  insoluble  earth  have  made  its 
escape  from  the  soil !  To  remove  this  obstacle,  without  admitting  the  ope- 
ration of  acid  in  making  such  soils  neutral,  will  be  attended  with  at  least 
as  much  difficulty,  as  any  arising  from  that  admission  being  made. 

7th.  But  we  are  not  left  entirely  to  conjecture  that  soils  were  once  more 
calcareous  than  they  now  are,  if  chemical  tests  can  be  relied  on  to  furnish 
proof.  Acid  soils  that  have  received  large  quantities  of  calcareous  earth 
as  manure,  after  some  time,  will  yield  very  little  when  analyzed.  To  a 
soil  of  this  kind,  full  of  vegetable  matter,  I  applied,  in  1818  and  1821, 
fossil  shells  at  such  a  known  and  heavy  rate  as  would  have  given  to  the 
soil  (by  calculation)  at  least  three  per  cent,  of  calcareous  earth,  for  the 
depth  of  five  inches.  Only  a  small  portion  of  the  shelly  matter  was  very 
finely  divided  when  applied.  Since  the  application  of  the  greater  part  of 
this  dressing,  (only  one-fourth  having  been  laid  on  in  1818,)  no  more  than 
six  years  had  passed  before  the  following  examinations  were  made  (at  end 
of  1826);  and  the  cultivation  of  five  crops  in  that  time,  three  of  which 
were  horse-hoed,  must  have  well  mixed  the  calcareous  earth  with  the  soil. 
Three  careful  examinations  gave  the  following  results: 

No.  I. — 1000  grains  yielded  71  of  coarse  calcareous  earth,  (fragments  of 
shells,)  , 

And  less  than  5  of  finely  divided. 


•  Agr.  Chem.  p.  131.    Also  Treatise  on  Agriculture,  (by  General  Armstrong,)  quoted 
in  a  preceding  page  (33)  of  this  essay. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORX  5] 


No.  2. — 1000  grains  yielded  (tajfooane, 

2  linoly  divided. 


No.  3. — 1500  grains  yielded  15   of  coarse, 

■>\  finely  divided. 

m 

The  specimens,  No.  1  and  No.  2,  were  obtained  by  taking  handfuls  of  soil 
from  several  places,  (four  in  one  case,  and  twelve  in  the  other,)  mixing  them 
well  together,  and  then  taking  the  samples  for  trial  from  the  two  parcels. 
On  such  land,  when  not  recently  ploughed,  there  will  always  be  an  over 
proportion  of  the  pieces  of  shells  on  the  surface,  as  the  rains  have  settled 
the  fine  soil,  and  left  exposed  the  coarser  matters.  On  this  account,  in 
making  these  two  selections,  the  upper  half-inch  was  first  thrown  aside,  and 
the  handful  dug  from  below.  No.  3  was  taken  from  a  spot  showing  a  full 
average  thickness  of  shells,  and  included  the  surface.  I  considered  the 
three  trials  made  as  fairly  as  possible,  to  give  a  general  average.  Small  as 
is  the  proportion  of  finely  divided  calcareous  earth  exhibited,  it  must  have 
been  increased  by  rubbing  some  particles  from  the  coarser  fragments,  in 
the  operation  of  separating  them  by  a  fine  sieve.  Indeed  it  may  be  doubt- 
ed whether  any  proportion  remained  very  finely  divided — or  in  other  words, 
whether  it  had  not  been  combined  with  acid,  as  fast  as  it  was  so  reduced. 
But  without  the  benefit  of  this  supposition,  the  finely  divided  calcareous 
earth  in  the  three  specimens  averaged  only  one  and  one-fourth  grains  to 
the  thousand,  which  is  one  twenty-fourth  of  the  quantity  laid  on;  and  the 
total  quantity  obtained,  of  coarse  and  fine,  is  eight  grains  in  one  thousand, 
or  about  one-fourth  of  the  original  proportion.  AH  the  balance  had  changed 
its  form,  or  otherwise  disappeared,  in  the  few  years  that  had  passed  since 
the  application. 

Another  similar  trial  of  this  soil  from  the  same  ground  was  repeated  in 
July,  1842,  which  showed  that  the  finely  divided  carbonate  of  lime,  then 
remaining,  was  in  quantity  so  small  as  to  be  barely  perceptible  and  ap- 
preciable. The  land  had  then  remained  undisturbed  by  tillage  for  nine 
months;  and  some  scattered  fragments  of  shells  were  exposed  to  view  on 
the  surface  generally.  For  the  obvious  reasons  stated  in  the  preceding 
paragraph,  there  will  always  appear  an  over-proportion  of  such  fragments, 
upon  the  surface  of  land  not.  recently  ploughed ;  for  this  reason,  as  on  two 
of  the  three  former  trials,  the  upper  half-inch  of  surface  soil  was  thrown 
aside,  and  the  sample  for  examination  taken  immediately  below.  Of  this, 
2400  grains  yielded  two  grains  only  of  small  fragments  of  shells,  and 
less  than  one  grain  of  finely  divided  carbonate  of  lime ;  whereas  seven- 
ty-two grains  had  been  the  original  quantity  furnished  to  the  soil.  This 
result,  with  those  of  the  earlier  trials,  agree  precisely  with  what  would  be 
expected  from  the  action  of  acid  in  soil,  and  cannot  be  satisfactorily  ex- 
plained by  any  other  doctrine.* 

*  Even  of  this  very  small  amount  of  fragments  of  shells  found,  (2  grains,)  more  than 
half  was  of  the  very  hard  ?ray  shells  (oyster  and  scallop,)  which  seem  almost 
indestructible  iu  soil.  They  must  contain  some  chemical  ingredient  which  enables  them 
to  withstand  the  acid  or  other  corroding  ;iction  of  soil,  to  which  ;dl  the  W 
shells,  whether  hard  or  soft,  so  readily  yield  in  the  course  of  time.  1  recently  observed 
a  most  striking  proof  of  this  well  known  general  tact  of  the  long  durability  of  these 
gray  shells,  and  consequently  their  comparative  worthli  .ure.   On  like  soil 

to  the  subject  of  the  above  trials,  and  near  the  same  spot,  I  recently  ( 1842)  founds  small 


52 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 


The  very  smaJl  proportions  of  finely  divided  calcareous  earth  compared 
to  the  coarse,  in  some  shelly  soils,  furnish  still  stronger  evidence  of  this 
kind.     Of  the  York  river  soil,  (described  page  38  No.  5,) 
1260  grains,  yielded  of  coarse  calcareous  parts,          -         -         168  grains. 
And  of  finely  divided, 8 

1044  of  the  rich  Nansemond  soil,  (No.  6,)  -         -        -         544  coarse. 

IS  fine. 

As  many  of  the  shells  and  their  fragments  in  these  soils  are  in  a  mould- 
ering state,  it  is  incredible  that  the  whole  quantity  of  finely  divided  particles 
derived  from  them  should  have  amounted  to  no  more  than  these  small  pro- 
portions. Independent  of  the  action  of  natural  causes,  the  plough  alone,  in 
a  few  years,  must  have  pulverized  at  least  as  much  of  the  shells  as  was 
found. 

8.  In  other  cases,  where  the  operations  of  nature  have  been  applying 
calcareous  earth  for  ages,  none  now  remains  in  the  soil ;  and  the  proof 
thence  derived  is  more  striking  than  any  obtained  from  artificial  applications 
of  only  a  few  years'  standing.  Valleys,  subject  to  be  frequently  flooded 
and  saturated  by  the  water  of  lime-stone  streams,  must  necessarily  retain  a 
new  supply  of  calcareous  earth  from  every  such  soaking  and  drying. 
Lime-stone  water  contains  the  super-carbonate  of  lime,  which  is  soluble ; 
but  this  loses  its  excess  of  carbonic  acid  when  left  dry  by  evaporation,  and 
becomes  the  carbonate  of  lime,  which  not  being  soluble,  is  in  no  danger  of 
being  removed  by  subsequent  floods.  Thus,  accessions  are  slowly  but 
continually  made,  through  many  centuries.  Yet  such  soils  are  found  con- 
taining no  calcareous  earth — of  which  a  remarkable  example  is  presented 
in  the  soil  of  the  cultivated  part  of  the  Sweet  Spring  V alley,  (No.  8, 
page  40.) 

The  excess  of  carbonic  acid,  which  unites  with  lime  and  renders  the  com- 
pound soluble  in  water,  is  lost  by  exposure  of  the  calcareous  water  to  the 
air,  as  well  as  by  evaporation  to  dryness.  [Accunrs  Chemistry — Lime.H 
The  masses  of  soft  calcareous  rock  which  are  deposited  in  the  rapids  of 
lime-stone  streams  are  examples  of  the  loss  of  cnrbonic  acid  from  exposure 
to  the  air  ;  and  the  stalactites  in  caves,  the  depusite  of  the  slow-dropping 
water  holding  in  solution  the  super-carbonate  of  lime,  are  examples  of  the 
same  effect  produced  by  evaporation.  A  similar  deposite  of  insoluble  car- 
bonate of  lime,  from  both  these  causes,  is  necessarily  made  on  all  land  sub- 
ject to  be  flooded  by  lime- stone  waters. 

9.  All  wood  ashes  contain  salts  of  lime,  (and  most  kinds  in  large  propor- 
tions,) which  could  have  been  derived  from  no  other  source  than  the  soils 
on  which  the  trees  grew.  The  lime  thus  obtained  is  principally  combined 
with  carbonic  acid,  and  partly  with  the  phosphoric,  forming  phosphate  of 
lime.  The  table  of  Saussure's  numerous  analyses  of  the  ashes  of  nume- 
rous plants,*  is  sufficient  to  show  that  these  products  are  general,  if  not 
universal.  The  following  examples  of  some  of  my  own  few  examinations 
prove  that  ashes  yield  calcareous  earth  in  proportions  suitable  to  their  kind, 
although  the  wood  grew  on  soils  destitute  of  that  ingredient — as  was  as- 
certained with  regard  to  each  of  these  soils. 

andthin  but  well-marked  oyster-shell,  (Ostrea  Virginiana,)  apparently  as  perfect  and 
as  well  preserved  as  when  it  was  dug  up,  and  which  was  a  good  characteristic  specimen 
of  the  kind,  and  as  such,  has  been  placed  in  my  cabinet.  This  shell  was  part  of 
the  dressing  spread  upon  the  field  for  the  crop  of  1821,  and  lias  been  since  exposed  to 
all  the  vicissitudes  of  tillage  and  of  weather  for  nearly  twenty-two  years. 
"  Quoted  in  Agr.  Chem.  Lecture  3. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY. 


.03 


1 

■ 

CARBONATE 

PHOSPHATE 

I  ion  oraihb  of  iflHia  mow 

WHAT  SOIL  TAKEN   PROM. 

or 

or 

1 

i.i  mi:. 

LIME. 

Whortleberry  bushes,  the 

entire  plants,  except  the 

leaves, 

Acid  silicious  loam, 

•l  grains. 

4  grains. 

Equal  parts  of  the  bark, 

heart,  and  sap-wood  of 

an  Old  lOCUSt, 

The  same. 

51      " 

18      " 

young  locust  bushea entire 

Rich  neutral  clay  loam, 

ID        " 

30      " 

*>  oung  pine  bushes, 

Acid  silicious  loam, 

9      " 

6      " 

Body  of  a  young  pine  tree. 

Acid  clay  soil, 

11      " 

18      " 

The  potash  was  first  carefully  taken  out  of  all  these  samples.  The  re- 
maining solid  matter  was  silicious  sand  and  charcoal ;  the  proportion  of 
the  latter  varying  according  to  the  degree  of  heat  used  in  burning  the  wood, 
which  was  nut  permitted  to  be  very  strong,  for  fear  of  converting  thecalca- 
reous  earth  into  quick-lime. 

It  must  be  evident  and  unquestionable  that  all  the  carbonate  of  lime 
yielded  by  the  ashes  had  been  necessarily  furnished  in  some  form  by  the 
soil  on  which  the  plants  grew  ;  and  when  the  soil  itself  contained  no  carbo- 
nate, as  in  all  these  cases,  some  other  compound  of  lime  must  have  been  pre- 
sent,'to  enable  us  to  account  for  these  certain  and  invariable  results.  The 
presence  of  a  combination  of  lime  with  some  vegetable  acid,  and  none  other, 
would  serve  to  produce  such  effects.  According  to  established  chemical 
laws,  if  any  such  combination  had  been  taken  up  into  the  sap-vessels  of 
the  tree,  it  would  be  decomposed  by  the  heat  necessary  to  convert  the  wood 
to  ashes;  the  acid  would  be  rehired  to  its  elementary  principles,  and  the 
lime  would  immediately  unite  with  the  carbonic  acid,  (which  is  produced 
abundantly  by  the  process  of  combustion,)  and  thus  present  a  product  of 
carbonate  qf  Unu  newly  formed  from  the  materials  of  the  other  substances 
decomposi  i 

On  the  foregoing  facts  and  deductions,  1  am  content  to  rest  the  truth  ot 
the  existence  of  acid  and  neutral  soils. 

I  have  (  hosen  to  leave  all  the  preceding  part  of  this  chapter  (with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  merely  verbal  corrections  and  alterations)  precisely  as  it 
appeared  in  the  Inst  edition  of  this  essay,  (January  1832.)i  But  since  that 
time  I  have  first  heard  of  a  discovery,  and  of  consequent  investigations  by 
men  of  science,  which  seem  to  furnish  direct  proof  of  what  I  have  been 
contending  for,  viz. :  the  existence  of  a  vegetable  acid  substance  in  soils  and 
manures,  generally  diffused,  and  often  in  large  proportions,  and  yet  which 
had  not  been  known  or  suspected  by  chemists  previously.  The  first  intima- 
tion of  this  discovery  which  reached  me  was  in  the  l  Alphabet  of  Scientific 
Gar*  Professor  Rennie,  published  in  London  in  1833,  from  which 

the  part  relative  to  Has  subject  will  be  quoted  below.  Since,  I  have 
seen  the  French  version  of  the  late  work  of  Berzelius,  in  which  his 
views  of  humic  acid  (or,  as  he  names  it,  the  geic  acid,)  are  given  more  at 

•  The  reasoning  on  (lie  presence  of  the  carbonate  of  lime  li  Tom  acid 

«oils,  does  not  apply  to  the  phosphate  of  lime  which  i-<  also  always  present     The  latter 

id  by  any  known  degree  of  heat,  [Art  Edin.Ency.~i 

and  therefore  might  possibly  have  remained  unchanged,  in  passing  from  the  soil  to  the 

tree,  ami  thence  to  thi 

t  The  general  position  and  views  taken  as  to  acid  and  neutral  soils  are  also,  in  sub- 
5tanc,  I  .  ared  in  my  first  publication  on  this  subject  in  1821. 


54  CALCAREOUS  .MANURES- THEORY 

length,  and  from  which  an  extract  will  be  translated  and  given  in  the  ap- 
pendix. The  facts  respecting  humic  acid,  as  concisely  stated  in  the  follow- 
ing quotation  from  Professor  Rennie,  furnish  strong  confirmation  of  some 
of  the  opinions  which  I  have  endeavored  to  maintain.  It  will  however  be 
left,  without  farther  comment,  for  the  reader  to  observe  the  accordance,  and 
to  make  the  application. 

"Humic  acid  and  humin. — In  most  chemical  books  the  terms  vlmic  acid 
and  ulmin  are  used,  from  ulmus,  elm  ;  but,  as  its  substance  occurs  in  most, 
if  not  all  plants,  the  name  is  bad.  I  prefer  Sprengel's  terms,  from  humus, 
soil. 

"  This  important  substance  was  first  discovered  by  Klaproth,  in  a  sort  of 
gum  from  an  elm ;  but  it  has  since  been  found  by  Berzelius  in  all  barks :  by 
M.  Braconnot  in  saw-dust,  starch,  and  sugar;  and,  what  is  still  more  in- 
teresting for  our  present  purpose,  it  has  been  found  by  Sprengel  and  M. 
Polydore  Boullay  to  constitute  a  leading  principle  in  soils  and  manures. 
Humin  appears  to  be  formed  of  carbon  and  hydrogen,  and  the  Hi— ft,  acid 
of  humin  and  ox}Tgen.  Pure  humin  is  of  a  deep  blackish  brown,  without 
taste  or  smell,  and  water  dissolves  it  with  great  difficulty  and  in  small  quan- 
tities ;  consequently  it  cannot,  when  pure,  be  available  as  food  for  plants. 

"  Humic  acid  however,  which,  I  may  remark,  i's  not  sour  to  the  taste,  readily 
combines  with  many  of  the  substances  found  in  soils  and  manures,  and  not 
only  renders  them,  but  itself  also,  easy  to  be  dissolved  in  water,  which  in 
their  separate  state  could  not  take  place.  In  this  way  humic  acid  iriU  com- 
bine with  lime,  potass,  and  ammonia,  in  the  form  of  humates,  and  the  small- 
est portion  of  these  trill  render  it  soluble  in  water  and  Jit  to  be  taken  up  by 
the  spongeltts  of  the  root  fibres. 

'•It  appears  to  have  been  from  ignorance  of  the  important  action  of  the 
humic  acid  in  thus  helping  to  dissolve  earthy  matters,  that  the  older  writers 
were  so  puzzled  to  discover  how  lime  and  potass  got  into  plants:  and  it 
seems  also  to  be  this,  chiefly,  which  is  so  vaguely  treated  of  in  the  older 
books,  under  the  names  of  extractive,  vegetable  extract,  mucilaginous  mat- 
ter, and  the  like.  Saussure,  for  instance,  filled  a  vessel  with  turf,  and  mois- 
tened it  thoroughly  with  pure  water,  when  by  putting  ten  thousand  parts 
of  it  by  weight  under  a  heavy  press,  and  filtering  and  evaporating  the  fluid, 
he  obtained  twenty-six  parts  of  what  he  termed  extract ,-  from  ten  thou- 
sand parts  of  well  dunged  and  rich  kitchen  garden  mould,  he  obtained  ten 
parts  of  extract ;  and  from  ten  thousand  parts  of  good  corn  field  mould, 
he  obtained  four  parts  of  extract. 

-  M.  Polydore  Boullay  found  that  the  liquid  manure,  drained  from  dung- 
hills, contains  a  large  proportion  of  humic  acid,  which  accounts  for  its  fer- 
tilizing properties  so  well  known  in  China  and  on  the  continent ;  and  he 
found  it  also  in  peat  earth,  and  in  varying  proportions  in  all  sorts  of  turf. 
It  appears  probable,  from  Gay-Lussac  having  found  a  similar  acid,  (techni- 
cally azumic  acid,)  on  decomposing  the  prussic  acid,  (technically  hydro- 
cyanic acid,)  that  the  humic  acid  may  be  found  in  animal  blood,  and  if  so, 
it  will  account  for  its  utility  as  a  manure  for  vines,  &c.  Dobereiner  found 
the  gallic  acid  convertible  into  the  humic.'' 

When  the  last  edition  of  this  essay  was  published,  (in  1 835.)  the  above 
annunciation  had  but  just  before  been  made,  showing  that  there  was  indeed 
high  scientific  authority  for  the  very  general  existence  of  a  vegetable  acid 
in  soils.  And  since  that  time,  the  fact  has  been  admitted  by  almost  all 
scientific  writers,  and  has  been  treated  of  at  length  in  sundry  chemical  works 
and  reports  of  geological  surveys  in  this  country.  The*  doctrine  of  the 
existence  of  an  acid  of  soil,  of  vegetable  origin,  which  before  had  scarcely  any 
other  authority  for  its  support  than  minef  humble  and  obscure  as  that  was. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY.  55 

Is  now  of  universal  acceptation.  Still,  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been 
written  on  the  subject,  very  little  light  has  been  thrown  on  it  by  the  chemists 
who  have  treated  of  it.  Being  myself  too  little  informed  to  be  able  to  pro- 
perly digest  these  different  speculations  and  to  balance  authorities,  and  to 
separate  the  true  and  valuable  from  the  erroneous  or  worthless  of  what 
has  been  lately  published,  1  deem  it  best  still  to  rely  on  my  own  previously 
published  views  and  proofs  only,  as  presented  in  the  foregoing  pages. 
Therefore,  leaving  it  to  chemists  to  settle  their  present  differences  of  opi- 
nion in  regard  to  the  qualities,  and  even  identity,  as  well  as  name  of  the 
acid  of  soil,  and  to  clear  away  the  existing  confusion  and  obscurity  of  their 
Mews,  I  will,  for  the  present,  adopt  nothing  on  their  authority  in  this  re- 
spect. Still,  I  earnestly  hope  that  their  subsequent  investigations  may  be 
successful  in  eliciting  and  determining  what  is  true  of  this  acid — and  also  in 
applying  the  truths  ascertained  to  advance  the  knowledge  of  the  composi- 
tion and  improvement  of  soils.  For  the  same  reason,  I  shall  also  decline 
adopting  any  of  the  various  terms  which  have  been  successively  applied  by 
different,  and  even  the  same  chemists,  to  designate  the  acid  of  suil ;  as 
Auntie,  g-cic,  erotic  and  apocratic  acid,  &c. 

But  without  the  aid  of  this  recent  discovery  of  the  humic  or  geic  acid, 
if  the  foregoing  examinations  of  soils,  and  the  arguments  which  follow,  re- 
main unquestioned,  these  two  remarkable  and  important  facts  may  be  con- 
sidered as  thereby  established  beyond  dispute  or  doubt : 

1st,  That  calcareous  earth,  or  carbonate  of  lime,  is  in  general  as  entirely 
deficient  in  the  soils  of  Virginia,  as  that  ingredient  had  heretofore  been  sup- 
posed, by  agricultural  writers,  to  be  common  in  all  soils ;  and. 

2d,  That,  notwithstanding  this  total  absence  of  the  carbonate  of  lime, 
that  lime  in  some  other  form  of  combination,  and  in  greater  or  less  quantity, 
is  an  ingredient  of  every  soil  capable  of  producing  vegetation. 

Nor  do  these  facts  come  in  conflict  with  each  other  ;  nor  either  of  them 
with  the  position  which  has  been  contended  for,  that  calcareous  matter  ill 
proper  proportions  is  necessary  to  cause  fertility  in  soils.  Should  some 
other  person,  who  may  be  aided  by  sufficient  scientific  light,  undertake  the 
investigation,  he  may  supply  all  that  is  wanting  for  the  direct  proof  of  this 
theory  of  the  cause  of  fertility,  anil  perhaps  show  that  the  value  of  a  soil 
(under  equal  circumstances)  is  in  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  the  vegetable 
salt  of  limr  present  in  the  soil.  The  direct  and  positive  proof  of  this  doctrine, 
I  confidently  anticipate  will  hereafter  be  obtained  from  more  full  examina- 
tions of  the  humic  acid,  and  its  compounds  in  various  soils,  and  from  cor- 
rect and  minute  reports  of  the  quantities  and  kinds  of  those  ingredients. 
in  connexion  with  the  degree  of  the  natural  fertility  of  each  soil, 
however  interesting  the  recent  discovery  of  humic  acid  may  be  to  chemists, 
it  does  not  seem  that  they  have  suspected  it  to  have  any  thing  like  the 
important  bearing  on  the  fertilization  of  soil  which  I  had  attributed  to  the 
supposed  acid  principle  or  ingredient  of  soils.  .  Berzelius  seems  scarcely 
to  have  bestowed  a  thought  on  this  most  Important  application  of  his  in- 
vestigation of  the  properties  of  geine  and  geic  acid. 

Supposing  the  doctrine  to  be  sufficiently  established  by  my  own  proofs 
offered  above,  it  may  be  useful  to  trace  the  formation  and  increase  of  acidity 
in  diileretit  soils,  according  to  the  views  which  have  been  presented,  and 
to  display  the  promise  which  that  quality  holds  out   for  improvin 
soils  which  it  has  heretofore  rendered  barren  and  worthless. 

Every  neutral  soil  at  some  former  time  must  have  contained  calcareous 
earth  in  sufficient  quantity  to  produce  the  uniform  effect  of  thai  ingredient  ol 
storing  up  and  fixing  fertility.  The  decomposition  of  the  successive  growths 
of  plants,  left  to  rot  on  the  rich  soil,  continually  formed  vegetable  acid,  which. 


56 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY. 


as  fast  as  formed,  united  with  the  lime  in  the  soil.  At  last  these  two 
principles  balanced  each  other,  and  the  soil  was  no  longer  calcareous,  but 
neutral.  Instead  of  its  former  ingredient,  carbonate  of  lime,  it  was 
now  supplied  with  a  vegetable  salt  of  lime.  This  change  of  soil  does 
not  affect  the  natural  growth,  which  remains  the  same,  and  thrives  as  well 
as  when  the  soil  was  calcareous ;  and  when  brought  into  cultivation,  the 
soil  is  equally  productive  under  all  crops  suited  to  calcareous  soils.  If  the 
supplies  of  vegetable  matter  continue,  the  soil  may  even  become  acid  in 
some  measure,  as  may  be  evidenced  by  the  growth  of  sorrel — but  without 
losing  any  of  its  fertility  before  acquired.  The  degree  of  acidity  in  any 
one  soil  frequently  varies ;  it  is  increased  by  the  growth  of  such  plants  as 
delight  to  feed  on  it,  and  by  the  decomposition  of  all  vegetable  matters. 
Hence  the  longer  a  poor  field  remains  at  rest,  and  not  grazed,  the  more 
acid  it  becomes ;  and  this  evil  keeping  pace  with  the  benefits  derived,  is  the 
cause  why  so  little  improvement,  or  increased  product,  is  obtained  from 
putting  acid  soils  under  that  mild  treatment.  Cultivation  not  only  prevents 
new  supplies,  but  also  diminishes  the  acidity  already  present  in  excess,  by 
exposing  it  to  the  atmosphere ;  and  therefore  the  more  a  soil  is  exhausted, 
the  more  will  its  acidity  be  lessened. 

We  have  seen  from  the  proof  furnished  by  the  analysis  of  wood  ashes, 
that  even  poor  acid  soils  contain  a  little  salt  of  lime,  and  therefore  must 
have  been  slightly  calcareous  at  some  former  time.  But  such  small  pro- 
portions of  calcareous  earth  were  soon  equalled,  and  then  exceeded,  by  the 
formation  of  vegetable  acid,  before  much  productiveness  was  caused.  The 
soil  being  thus  changed,  the  plants  suitable  to  calcareous  soils  died  off,  and 
gave  place  to  others  which  produce,  as  well  as  feed  and  thrive  on,  acidity. 
Still,  however,  even  these  plants  furnish  abundant  supplies  of  vegetable 
matter,  sufficient  to  enrich  the  land  in  the  highest  degree;  but  the  antiseptic 
power  of  the  acid  prevents  the  leaves  from  rotting  for  years,  and  even  then 
the  soil  has  no  power  to  profit  by  their  products.  Though  continually 
wasted,  the  vegetable  matter  is  continually  again  forming,  and  always  pre- 
sent in  abundance ;  but  must  remain  almost  useless  to  the  soil,  until  the 
accompanying  acidity  shall  be  destroyed. 

It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  any  soil  destitute  of  lime  in  every  form 
would  not  necessarily  be  a  perfect  barren,  incapable  of  producing  a  spire  of 
grass.  No  soil  thus  destitute  is  known,  as  the  plants  of  all  soils  show  in 
their  ashes  the  presence  of  some  lime.  But  it  is  probable  that  our  sub-soils, 
which,  when  left  naked  by  the  washing  away  of  the  soil,  are  so  generally 
and  totally  barren,  are  made  so  by  their  being  entirely  destitute  of  lime  in 
any  form.  There  is  a  natural  process  regularly  and  at  all  times  working  to 
deprive  the  sub-soil  of  all  lime,  unless  the  soil  is  abundantly  supplied. 
What  constitutes  soil,  and  makes  the  strong  and  plain  mark  of  separation 
and  distinction  between  the  more  or  less  fertile  soil  and  the  absolutely  sterile 
sub-soil  beneath  !  The  most  obvious  cause  for  this  difference  which  might 
be  stated,  is  the  dropping  of  the  dead  vegetable  matter  on  the  surface ;  but 
this  is  not  sufficient  alone  to  produce  the  effects,  though  it  may  be  so  when 
aided  by  another  cause  of  more  power.  When  the  most  barren  surface  earth 
was  formed  or  deposited  by  any  of  the  natural  agents  to  which  such  effects 
are  attributed  by  geologists,  it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  surface 
was  no  richer  than  any  lower  part  of  the  whole  upper  stratum  so  depo- 
sited. If,  then,  a  very  minute  proportion  of  lime  had  been  equally  dis- 
tributed through  the  body  of  poor  earth  to  any  depth  that  the  roots  of 
trees  could  penetrate,  it  would  follow  that  the  roots  would,  in  the  course 
of  time,  take  up  all  the  lime,  as  all  of  it  would  be  wanting  for  the 
support  of  the  trees;  and  their  death   and  decay  would  afterwards  leave 


I  LLCaJBBOl  S  M  INURES     I  HEOH1  57 

all  this  former  Ingredient  of  the  soil  in  general,  mi  the  surface.    This 

process  must  have  tl Sect,  in  the  course  of  time,  <>f  fixing  on  and  near 

the  surface  the  «  hole  of  .1  scanty  supply  of  lime,  and  of  leaving  the  sub-soil 
without  any.    Bol  it'  there  Is  within  tin-  reach  of  the  roots  more  lime  than 

any  one  WOP  OT    gTOWth  of  plants   needs,  then  the  BUperflUOUS  lime    will  be 

permitted  to  remain  in  the  sub-soil,  which  sub-soil  v.  ill  then  be  Improvabli 

by  vegetable  substances,  and  readily  convertible  to  productive  soil.    The 

manner  in  which  lime  thus  operates  will  be  explained  in  the  next  chapter. 

Nearly  all  the  wood-land  now  remaining  in  lower  \  u  ginia,  and  also  much 

of  the  land  which  lias  long  been  arable,  is  rendered  unproductive  by 
acidity,  and -successive  generations  have  toiled  on  such  land,  almost  with- 
out 1  enumeration,  and  without  suspecting  that  their  worst  virgin  land  was 
then  richer  than  their  manured  lots  appear  to  be.  The  cultivator 
of  such  soil,  who  knows  not  its  peculiar  disease,  has  no  other  prospect 
than  a  gradual  decrease  of  his  always  scanty  crops.  But  if  the  evil  is 
once  understood,  and  the  means  of  its  removal  is  within  his  reach,  he 
has  reason  to  rejoice  that  his  soil  was  so  constituted  as  to  be  preserved 
from  the  effects  of  the  improvidence  of  his  forefathers,  who  would  have 
worn  out  any  land  not  almost  indestructible.  The  presence  of  acid,  by 
restraining  the  productive  powers  of  the  soil,  has  in  a  great  measure 
saved  it  from  exhaustion;  and  after  a  course  of  cropping  which  would 
have  utterly  ruined  soils  much  better  constituted,  the  powers  of  our 
acid  land  remain  not  greatly  impaired,  though  dormant,  and  ready  to  be 
called  into  action  by  merely  being  relieved  of  its  acid  quality.  A  few  crops 
will  reduce  a  new  acid  field  to  so  low  a  rate  of  product,  that  it  scarcely 
will  pay  for  its  cultivation ;  but  no  great  change  is  afterwards  caused,  by 
continuing  scourging  tillage  and  grazing,  for  fifty  years  longer.  Thus  our 
acid  soils  have  two  remarkable  and  opposite  qualities,  both  proceeding  from 
the  same  cause :  they  can  neither  be  enriched  by  manure,  nor  impoverished  by 
cultivation,  to  any  groat  extent,  dualities  so  remarkable  deserve  all  cm- 
powers  of  investigation ;  yet  their  very  frequency  seems  to  have  caused 
them  to  be  overlooked  ;  and  our  writers  on  agriculture  have  continued  to 
urge  those  who  seek  improvement  to  apply  precepts  drawn  from  English 
authors,  to  soils  which  are  totally  different  from  all  those  for  which  their 
instructions  were  Intended. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

TUP.  MODE  OP  OPERATION  BY    WHICH   CALCAREOUS    EARTH    INCREASES  THE     FERTILI- 
TY   AND  PRODUCTIVENESS  OP    SOILS. 

Proposition  3.    The  fertilizing  effects  of  calcareous  earth  arc  ch'njly  pro- 
duced  in/  itt  power  of  neutralizing  acids,  ami  of  combining  putresi 
nures  with  soils,  between  which  there  would  otherwise  be  but  little,  if  any, 
ul  attraction. 

Proposition  4.   Poor  and  acid  soils  cannot  I ur ably,  or  profitably, 

by  putrescent  manures,  without  previously  making  them  calcareous,  and 
tin  id')/  correcting  tin  defect  in  their  constitution. 

It  has  already  been  made  evident  that  the  presence  of  calcareous  earth 

in  a  natural  soil  causes  great  and  durable  fertility,  lint  it  still  remains  to 
be  determined,  to  what  properties  of  this  earth  its  peculiar  fertilizing  effects 
are  to  be  attributed. 


58  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 

Chemistry  has  taught  that  silicious  earth,  in  any  state  of  division,  attracts 
but  slightly,  if  at  all,  any  of  the  parts  of  putrescent  animal  and  vegetable 
matters.*  But  even  if  any  slight  attraction  really  exists  when  this  earth  is 
minutely  divided  for  experiment  in  the  laboratory  of  the  chemist,  it  cannot 
be  exerted  by  silicious  sand  in  the  usual  form  in  which  nature  gives  it  to 
soils ;  that  is,  in  particles  comparatively  coarse,  loose,  and  open,  and  yet 
each  particle  impenetrable  to  any  liquid,  or  gaseous  fluid,  that  might  be 
passing  through  the  vacancies.  Hence,  silicious  earth  can  have  no  power, 
chemical  or  mechanical,  either  to  attract  enriching  manures,  or  to  preserve 
them  when  actually  placed  in  contact  and  intermixed  with  them ;  and  soils 
in  which  the  qualities  of  this  earth  greatly  predominate,  must  give  out  freely 
all  enriching  matters  which  they  may  have  received,  not  only  to  a  growing 
crop,  but  to  the  sun,  air,  and  water,  so  as  soon  to  lose  the  whole.  No 
portion  of  putrescent  matter  can  remain  longer  than  the  completion  of  its 
decomposition ;  and  if  not  arrested  during  this  process,  by  the  roots  of 
living  plants,  all  will  escape  in  the  form  of  gas  (the  latest  products  of 
decomposition,)  into  the  air,  without  leaving  a  trace  of  lasting  improve- 
ment. With  a  knowledge  of  these  properties,  we  need  not  resort' to  the 
common  opinion  that  manure  sinks  through  sandy  soils,  to  account  for  its 
rapid  and  total  disappearance.! 

Aluminous  earth,  by  its  closeness,  mechanically  excludes  those  agents  of 
decomposition,  heat,  air  and  moisture,  which  sand  so  freely  admits ;  and 
therefore  clay  soils,  in  which  this  earth  predominates,  give  out  manure  much 
more  slowly  than  sand,  whether  for  waste'  or  for  use.  The  practical  effect 
of  this  is  universally  understood — that  clay  soils  retain  manure  much  longer 
than  sand,  but  require  much  heavier  applications  to  show  as  much  effect 
early,  or  a^  once.  But  as  this  means  of  retaining  manure  is  altogether 
mechanical,  it  serves  only  to  delay  both  its-use  and  its  waste.  Aluminous 
earth  also  exerts  some  chemical  power  in  attracting  and  combining  with 
putrescent  manures,  but  too  weakly  to  enable  a  clay  soil  to  become  rich  by 
natural  means.  For  though  clays  are  able  to  exert  more  force  than  sand 
in  holding  manures,  their  closeness  also  acts  to  deny  admittance  beneath 

•  Davy's  Agr.  Chem.  page  129. 

t  Except  the  very  small  proportions  of  earthy,  saline  and  metallic  matters  that  may 
he  in  animal  and  vegetable  manures,  the  whole  balance  of  their  bulk  (and  the  whole  of 
whatever  can  feed  plants,)  is  composed  of  different  elements  which  are  known  only  in 
the  forms  of  gases — into  which  manures  must  be  finally  resolved,  after  going  through  all 
the  various  stages  of  fermentation  and  decomposition.  So  far  from  sinking  in  the  earth, 
these  final  results  could  not  be  possibly  confined  there,  but  must  escape  into  the  atmo- 
sphere as  soon  as  they  take  a  gaseous  form,  unless  immediately  taken  up  by  the  organs 
of  growing  plants.  It  is  probable  that  but  a  small  portion  of  any  dressing  of  manure 
remains  long  enough  in  the  soil  to  make  this  final  change  ;  and  that  nearly  all  of  it  is 
used  by  growing  plants,  during  previous  changes,  or  carried  off' by  air  and  water.  During 
the  progress  of  the  many  changes  caused  by  fermentation  and  decomposition,  every 
soluble  product  may  certainly  sink  as  low  as  the  rains  penetrate  ;  but  it  cannot  descend 
lower  than  the  water,  and  that,  together  with  the  soluble  manure,  will  be  again  drawn 
up  by  the  roots  of  plants.  One  exception,  however,  seems  probable.  Should  the  soil 
need  draining,  to  take  off  water  passing  beneath  the  surface,  the  soluble  manure  may  be 
carried  off  by  those  springs  ;  anil  this  supposed  result  receives  strong  confirmation  from 
the  complete  loss  of  fertility  which  is  often  observed  in  spots  over  sub-soil  that  is 
oozy  in  wet  seasons,  but  which  have  been  kept  under  tillage,  without  being  drained. 
We  are  as  yet  but  little  informed  as  to  the  particular  changes  made,  and  the  various 
new  substances  successively  formed,  and  then  decomposed,  during  the  whole  duration 
of  putrescent  manures  in  the*  soil — and  no  field  for  discovery  would  better  reward  the 
investigations  of  the  agricultural  chemist.  For  want  of  this  knowledge  we  proceed  at 
random  in  using  manures,  instead  of  being  enabled  to  conform  to  any  rule  founded  on 
scientific  principles  ;  nor  can  we  hope,  without  such  knowledge,  so  to  manage  manures 
with  regard  to  their  fermentation,  the  time  and  manner  of  application,  mixing  with 
other  substances,  &c,  as  to  enable  the  crops  la  seize  every  enriching  result  as  soon  as  it 
is  produced,  and  to  postpone  as  long  as  possible  the  final  results  of  decomposition— which 
ought  to  be  the  ends  sought  in  every  application  oi'  putrescent  manure. 


AREOl'S  MANURES-THEORY.  59 

the  surface  to  the  enriching  matters  furnished  by  the  growth  and  decay  of 
plants.     And  therefore,  before  being  brought  Into  cultivation,  a  poor  clay 
soil  would  derive  scarcely  any  benefit  from  its  small  power  of  combining 
chemically  with  putrescent  matter*    If  then  it  i.s  considered  how  small  is 
the  power  of  both  silicious  and  aluminous  earths  to  receive  and  retain  pu- 
nt manures,  it  will  cease  to  cause  surprise  that  such  soils  cannot  be 
thus  enriched,  with  profit,  if  at  all.     It  would  indeed  he  strange  and  un- 
luitable,  if  earths  and  soils  thus  constituted  could  be  enriched  by  pu- 
it  manures  alone. 

Davy  states  that  both  aluminous  ami  calcareous  earth  will  combine  with 
.my  vegetable  extract,  so  as  to  render  it  less  soluble,  (and  consequently  not 
subject  to  the  waste  that  would  otherwise  take  place,)  and  hence  "that  the 
soils  which  contain  most  alumina  and  carbonate  of  lime,  are  those  which 
act  with  the  greatest  chemical  energy  in  preserving  manures."  Here  is 
high  authority  for  calcareous  earth  possessing  the  power  which  my  argu- 
ment demands,  but  not  in  so  great  a  degree  as  I  think  it  deserves.  Davy 
apparently  places  both  earths  in  this  respect  on  the  same  footing,  and  allows 
to  aluminous  soils  retentive  powers  equal  to  the  calcareous.  Bui  though 
he  gives  evidence  (from  chemical  experiments}  of  this  power  in  both  earths, 
he  does  not  seem  to  have  investigated  the  difference  of  their  forces.  Nor 
could  he  deem  it  very  important,  holding  the  opinion  which  he  elsewhere 
expresses,  that  calcareous  earth  acts  "  merely  by  forming  a  useful  earthy 
Ingredient  in  the  soil,"  and  consequently  attributing  to  it  no  remarkable 
chemical  effects  as  a  manure.  I  shall  offer  some  reasons  for  believing  that 
the  powers  of  attracting  and  retaining  manure,  possessed  by  these  two 
earths,  differ  greatly  in  their  degrees  of  force. 

Our  aluminous  and  calcareous  soils,  through  the  whole  of  their  virgin 
.  have  had  equal  means  of  receiving  vegetable  matter;  and  if  their 
powers  lor  retaining  it  were  nearly  equal,  so  would  he  their  acquired  fer- 
tility. Instead  of  this,  while  the  calcareous  soils  have  been  raised  to  the 
highest  condition,  many  of  the  tracts  of  clay  soil  remain  the  poorest  and 
most  worthless.  It  is  true  that  the  one  labored  under  acidity,  from  which 
the  other  was  free.  Jlut  if  we  suppose  nine-tenths  of  the  vegetable  matter 
to  have  been  rendered  useless  by  that  poisonous  quality,  the  remaining 
tenth,  applied  for  so  long  a  time,  would  have  made  fertile  any  soil  that  had 
the  power  to  retain  the  enriching  matter. 

Many  kinds  of  shells  are  partly  composed  of  gelatinous  animal  matter, 
which,  I  suppose,  must  be  chemically  combined  with  the  calcareous  earth, 
and  by  that  means  only  is  preserved  from  the  putrefaction  and  waste  that 
would  otherwise  certainly  and  speedily  take  place.  Indeed,  the  large  pro- 
portion of  animal  matter  which  thus  helps  to  constitute  shells,  instead  of 
making  them  more  perishable,  serves  to  increase  their  firmness  and  solidity. 
When  long  exposure,  as  in  fossil  shells,  has  destroyed  all  animal  matter, 
the  texture  of  the  calcareous  substance  is  greatly  weakened.  A  simple 
experiment  will  serve  to  separate,  and  make  manifest  to  the  eye,  the  animal 
matter  which  is  thus  combined  with  and  preserved  by  the  calcareous  earth. 
If  a  fresh-water  muscle-shell  is  kept  for  some  days  immersed  in  a  weak 
mixture  of  muriatic  acid  and  water,  all  the  calcareous  part  will  be  gra- 
dually dissolved,  leaving  the  animal  matter  so  entire,  as  to  appear  still  to 
be  a  whole  shell— but  which,  when  lifted  from  the  fluid  which  supports  it, 
will  prove  to  be  entirely  a  flaccid,  gelatinous,  and  putrescent  substance, 
without  a  particle  of  calcareous  matter  being  left.  Yet  this  substance, 
which  is  so  highly  putrescent  when  alone,  would  have  been  preserved  in 
combination  with  calcareous  matter,  in  the  shell,  for  many  years,  if  exposed 
to  the  usual  changes  of  air  and  moisture;  and  if  secured  from  such 
changes,  would  be  almost  imperishable 


60  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEORY. 

Calcareous  earth  has  power  to  preserve  those  animal  matters  which  are 
most  liable  to  waste,  and  which  give  to  the  sense  of  smell  full  evidence 
when  they  are  escaping.  Of  this,  a  striking  example  is  furnished  by  an 
experiment  which  was  made  with  care  and  attention.  The  carcass  of  a 
cow,  that  was  killed  by  accident  in  May,  was  laid  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  and  covered  with  about  seventy  bushels  of  finely  divided  fossil  shells 
and  earth,  (mostly  silicious,)  their  proportions  being  as  thirty-six  of  calca- 
reous, to  sixty-four  of  silicious  earth.  After  the  rains  had  settled  the  heap, 
it  was  only  six  inches  thick  over  the  highest  part  of  the  carcass.  The  pro- 
cess of  putrefaction  was  so  slow,  that  several  weeks  passed  before  it  was 
over  ;  nor  was  it  ever  so  violent  as  to  throw  off  any  effluvia  that  the  calca- 
reous earth  did  not  intercept  in  its  escape,  so  that  no  offensive  smell  was 
ever  perceived.  In  October,  the  whole  heap  was  carried  out  and  applied 
to  one-sixth  of  an  acre  of  wheat — and  the  effect  produced  far  exceeded 
that  of  the  calcareous  manure  alone,  which  was  applied  at  the  same  rate 
on  the  surrounding  land.  No  such  power  as  this  experiment  indicated  (and 
which  I  have  since  repeated  in  various  modes,  and  always  with  like  results) 
will  be  obtained,  or  expected  from  clay. 

Quick-lime  is  used  to  prevent  the  escape  of  offensive  effluvia  from  animal 
matter ;  but  its  operation  is  entirely  different  from  that  of  calcareous  earth. 
The  former  effects  its  object  by  "  eating"  or  decomposing  the  animal  sub- 
stance, (and  nearly  destroying  it  as  manure,)  before  putrefaction  begins. 
The  operation  of  calcareous  earth  is  to  moderate  and  retard,  but  not  to 
prevent  putrefaction ;  not  to  destroy  the  animal  matter,  but  to  preserve  it 
effectually,  by  forming  new  combinations  with  the  products  of  putrefaction. 
This  important  operation  will  be  treated  of  more  fully  in  a  subsequent 
chapter. 

The  power  of  calcareous  earth  to  combine  with  and  retain  putrescent 
manure,  implies  the  power  of  fixing  them  in  any  soil  to  which  both  are  ap- 
plied. The  same  power  will  be  equally  exerted  if  the  putrescent  manure 
is  applied  to  a  soil  which  had  previously  been  made  calcareous,  whether  by 
nature,  or  by  art.  When  a  chemical  combination  is  formed  between  the 
two  kinds  of  manure,  the  one  is  necessarily  as  much  fixed  in  the  soil  as  the 
other.  Neither  air,  sun  or  rain,  can  then  waste  the  putrescent  manure,  be- 
cause neither  can  take  it  from  the  calcareous  earth,  with  which  it  is  chemi- 
cally combined.  Nothing  can  effect  the  separation  of  the  parts  of  this 
compound  manure,  except  the  attractive  power  of  growing  plants— which, 
as  all  experience  shows,  will  draw  their  food  from  this  combination  as  fast 
as  they  require  it,  and  as  easily  as  from  sand.  The  means  then  by  which 
calcareous  earth  acts  as  an  improving  manure  are,  completely  prescri-ing 
putrescent  manures  from  vjaste,  and  yielding  them  freely  for  use.  These 
particular  benefits,  however  great  they  may  -be,  cannot  be  seen  very  quickly 
after  a  soil  is  made  calcareous,  but  will  increase  with  time,  and,  with  the 
means  for  obtaining  vegetable  matters,  until  their  accumulation  is  equal  to 
the  soil's  power  of  retention.  The  kind,  or  the  source,  of  enriching  ma- 
nure, does  not  alter  the  process  described.  The  natural  growth  of  the  soil, 
left  to  die  and  rot,  or  other  putrescent  manures  collected  and  applied,  would 
alike  be  seized  by  the  calcareous  earth,  and  fixed  in  the  soil. 

This,  the  most  important  and  valuable  operation  of  calcareous  earth, 
then  gives  nothing  to  the  soil ;  but  only  secures  other  manures,  and  gives 
them  wholly  to  the  soil.  In  this  respect,  the  action  of  calcareous  earth  in 
fixing  manures  in  soils,  is  precisely  like  that  of  mordants  in  "  setting"  or 
fixing  colors  on  cloth.  When  alum,  for  example,  is  used  by  the  dyer  for 
this  purpose,  it  adds  not  the  slightest  tinge  of  itself— but  it  holds  to  the 
cloth,  and  also  to  the  otherwise  fleeting  dye,  and  thus  fixes  them  per- 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-THEuRY.  61 

manently  together.  Without  the  mordant,  the  color  might  have  been 
equally  vivid,  but  would  be  lost  by  the  first  wetting  of  the  cloth. 

Thus,  reasoning  a  priori,  &am  that  chemical  power  possessed  by  calca- 
reous earth  which  is  wanting  to  both  sandy  and  clayey  earths,  would 
lead  to  the  conclusion  that  call  th  serves  to  combine  putn 

matters  with  the  soil  in  general;  and  the  known  results  of  fertility  being 
therein  so  fixed,  might  serve  for  the  like  proof,  even  without  theothei  course 
of  reasoning.  There  is  still  another  proof  of  this  combination  being  formed, 
which  is  obtained  by  a  chemical  process,  but  which  is  so  simple  that  no 
chemical  science  is  requisite  to  make  the  trial.  * 

If  a  specimen  of  any  naturally  poor  soil,  after  being  dried  and  reduced 
to  powder,  be  agitated  in  a  vessel  of  water,  (as  a  common  drinking  glass,) 
and  then  allowed  to  stand  still,  the  coarser  silicious  sand  will  subside  first,  the 
liner  sand  next,  and  last  the  clay.  In  this  manner,  and  by  pouring  oil  the 
lighter  parts,  before  their  subsidence,  it  is  very  easy  to  separate  with 
sufficient  accuracy  the  sand  from  the  clay.  But  if  a  specimen  of  a  good 
rich  neutral  tail  be  tried  in  that  manner,  it  will  be  found  that  the  fine 
sand  and  the  clay" and  putrescent  matter  hold  together  so  closely  that  they 
cannot  be  separated  by  mere  agitation  in  water.  Then  take  another 
sample  of  the  same  soil,  and  pour  to  it  a  small  quantity  of  diluted  muriatic 
acid ;  and  though  no  effervescence  is  produced,  (the  lime  not  being  in  the 
form  of  carbonate,)  the  acid  will  take  away  the  lime,  or  destroy  its  combi- 
nation with  the  other  earths,  so  that  the  sand  and  the  clay  may  then  be 
separated  by  agitation  in  water,  as  perfectly  and  easily  as  in  the  case  of 
the  poorest  soils.  This  difference  between  good  and  bad  soils,  (whether 
light  or  stiff,)  or  those  naturally  rich  and  those  naturally  poor,  cannot 
escape  the  observation  of  the  young  experimenter ;  and  the  cause  can  be 
no  other  than  what  I  have  supposed.  This  then  serves  as  the  third  mode 
of  proof  of  the  important  position,  that  calcareous  earth  (or  lime  in  some 
other  form)  not  only  combines  with  vegetable  and  animal  matters,  but  also 
serves  (as  a  connecting  link)  to  combine  these  matters  with  the  sand  and 
clay  of  the  soil. 

The  next  most  valuable  property  of  calcareous  manures  for  the  improve- 
ment of  soil  is  their  poir,  r  ft  m  Uratizing  adds,  which  has  already  been 
incidentally  brought  forward  in  the  preceding  chapter.  According  to  the 
views  already  presented,  our  poorest  cultivated  soils  contain  more  vegetable 
matter  than  they  can  beneficially  use;  and  when  first  cleared,  they  have  it  in 
great  excess.  So  antiseptic  is  the  acid  quality  of  poor  wood-land,  that  be- 
fore the  crop  of  leaves  of  one  year  can  entirely  rot,  two  or  three  others 
will  have  fallen  ;  and  there  are  always  enough,  at  any  one  time,  to  greatly 
enrich  the  soil,  if  the  leaves  could  be  rotted  and  fixed  in  it  at  once. 

This  alleged  antiseptic  effect  of  vegetable  acid  in  our  soils  receives  strong 
support  from  the  facts  established  with  regard  to  peat  soils,  in  which  vege- 
table acids  have  been  discovered  by  chemical  analysis ;  and  though  the 
peat  or  moss  soils  of  Britain  differ  entirely  from  any  soils  in  eastern  Vir- 
ginia, (except  that  of  the  great  Dismal  Swamp,  almost  the  only  peat  bog 
known,)  still  some  facts  relating  to  the  former  class  may  throw  light  on  the 
properties  of  our  own  soils,  different  as  they  may  be.  Not  only  does  vege- 
table matter  remain  without  putrefaction  in  peat  soils  and  bogs,  and  serve  to 
increase  their  depth  by  regular  accretions  from  the  successive  annual  growths, 
but  even  the  bodies  of  beasts  and  men  have  been  found  unchanged  under 
peat,  many  years  after  they  had  been  covered."  It  is  well  known  that  the 
leaves  of  trees  rot  very  quickly  on  the  rich  lime-stone  soils  of  the  western 

•  See  Alton's  Essay  on  Moss  Earth,  republished  in  Farmers'  Register,  vol.  v.,  p.  462. 


62  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— TH1 

states,  while  the  successive  crops  of  several  years'  growth,  in  the  different 
stages  of  their  slow  decomposition,  may  be  always  found  on  the  acid  wood- 
land of  lower  Virginia. 

The  presence  of  acid  in  soils,  by  preventing  or  retarding  putrefaction, 
keeps  the  vegetable  matter  inert,  and  even  hurtful  on  cultivated  land  ;  and 
the  crops  are  still  further  injured  by  taking  up  this  poisonous  acid  with 
their  nutriment  A  sufficient  quantity  of  calcareous  earth,  mixed  with  such 
a  soil,  will  immediately  neutralize  the  acid,  and  destroy  its  powers  :  and  the 
soil,  released  from  its  baneful  influence,  will  be  rendered  capable,  for  the 
first  time,  of  using  the  fertility  which  it  really  possessed.  The  benefit 
thus  produced  is  almost  immediate ;  but  though  the  soil  will  shmv  a  new 
vigor  in  its  earliest  vegetation,  and  may  even  double  its  first  crop,  yet  no 
part  of  that  increased  product  is  due  to  the  direct  operation  of  the  calca- 
reous manure,  but  merely  to  the  removal  of  acidity.  The  calcareous  earth, 
in  such  a  case,  has  not  made  the  soil  richer  in  the  slightest  degree,  but  has 
merely  permitted  it  to  bring  into  use  the  fertility  it  had  before,  and  which 
was  concealed  by  the  acid  character  of  the  soil.  It  will  be  a  dangerous 
error  for  the  farmer  to  suppose  that  calcareous  earth  can  enrich  soil  by 
direct  means.  It  destroys  the  worst  foe  of  productiveness,  and  uses  to  the 
greatest  advantage  the  fertilizing  powers  of  other  manures  ;  but  of  itself  it 
gives  no  fertility  to  soils,  nor  does  it  furnish  the  least  food  to  growing 
plants.* 

These  two  kinds  of  action  are  by  far  the  most  powerful  of  the  means 
possessed  by  calcareous  earth  for  fertilizing  soils.  It  has  another  however 
of  great  importance — or  rather  two  others,  which  may  be  best  described 
together  as  the  poicer  of  altering  the  texture  andabsorbency  of  soils. 

At  first  it  may  seem  impossible  that  the  same  manure  can  produce 
such  opposite  effects  on  soils  as  to  lessen  the  faults  of  being  either  too 
sandy  or  too  clayey — and  the  evils  occasioned  by  both  the  want  and  the 
excess  of  moisture.  Contradictory  as  this  may  appear,  it  is  strictly  true 
as  to  calcareous  earth.  In  common  with  clay,  calcareous  earth  possesses 
the  power  of  making  sandy  soils  more  close  and  firm — and  in  common 
with  sand,  the  power  of  making  day  soils  lighter.  When  sand  and  clay 
thus  alter  the  textures  of  sols,  their  operation  is  altogether  mechanical ; 
but  calcareous  earth  must  have  some  chemical  action  also  in  producing 
such  effects,  as  its  power  is  far  greater  than  that  of  either  sand  or  clay.  A 
great  quantity  of  clay  would  be  required  to  stiffen  a  sandy  soil  per- 
ceptibly, and  still  more  sand  would  be  necessary  to  make  a  clay  soil  much 
lighter — so  that  the  cost  of  such  improvement  would  generally  exceed  tin 

*  Perhaps  it  may  be  considered  that  there  are  exceptions  to  Hie  above  dortrine  in  the 
well  established  facts  that  certain  plants  will  not  grow  well,  il  at  all,  in  soils  containing 
so  little  lime  as  to  be  classed  as  acid  •  :  how  rich  they  may  be  made  for  the 

time  by  putrescent  manures.     Amoi  .v.  and  hackberry  have  been 

already  named  as  plants  of  this  kind;  and  red  clover  is  as  remarkable  among  grasses  for 
requiring  lime  in  the  soil.  Sainfoin  is  still  more  remarkable,  and  cannot  be  pioduced 
to  profit,  even  if  it  will  live,  except  on  a  highly  calcareous  soil.  Lime  then  is  certainly 
a  specific  manure  for  these  plants:  that  is.  lime  promotes  their  growth  in  a  remarkable 
and  peculiar  degree,  and  they  can  scarcely  live  without  a  considerable  quantity  in  the 
soil.  Still  it  may  be  doubted  whether  it  is  that  they  require  the  lime  as  food,  or  for 
some  other  unknown  purpose,  no  less  indispensable.  Except  as  to  sainfoin,  (of  which 
I  have  no  practical  experience,)  a  moderate  proportion  of  lime  in  a  soil,  such  as  will 
merely  make  it  neutral,  seems  to  add  as  ranch  vigor  to  the  growth  of  the  plants  named, 
as  if  it  be  given  in  ten-fold  quantity.  This  would  seem  to  contradict  the  supposition 
of  the  lime  serving  as  food,  though  it  may  be  as  indispensable  to  these  plants  as  is  their 
food.  It  is  certain  that  dung,  or  other  rotten  vegetable  matter,  acts  as  food  to  all  crops 
which  it  benefits  ;  and  therefore  it  is.  that,  in  every  case  of  its  use  and  benefit,  a  large 
quantity  will  always  produce  effects  perceptibly  better  than  a  small  a/: 


lREOI  S  mam  RES—TH1  C,3 

benefit  obtained.    Much  greater  effects  on  the  texl  tare  derived 

from  much  Irss  quantities  of  calcareous  earth,  besides  obtaining  the  more 
ation  of  its  other  powers. 

Every  substance  that  is  <  >pi-n  enough  for  air  to  enter,  and  the  pai 
which  are  not  absolutely  impenetrable  >rb  moisture  from  the  at- 

;  in  an  impalpable  powder,  baa.  strong 
absorbing  powers.     Bui  this  is  not  the  form  in  wl  'U  can  act — 

an.l  a  dose  and  solid  clay  will  scarcely  admit  the  passage  of  air  or  water, 
and  therefore  cannot  absorb  much  moisture  except  by  its  surface.  Thn 
sandy  soils,  the  ah*  passes  freely;  but  moat  of  its  particles  are  impenetrable 
by  moisture,  and  therefore  these  soils  arc  also  extremely  deficient  in  ab- 
ut power.  Calcareous  earth,  by  rendering  clay  more  open  to  the 
entrance  of  air.  and  closing  partially  the  too  open  pores  of  sandy  soils,  in- 
■  nt  powers  of  both.  To  increase  that  power  in  any  soil, 
is  to  enable  it  to  draw  supplies  of  moisture  from  the  air,  in  the  driest 
weather,  and  to  [deist  more  strongly  the  waste  by  evaporation  of  light 
rains.  A  calcareous  soil  will  so  quickly  absorb  a  hasty  shower  of  rain  as 
to  appear  to  have  received  less  than  adjoining  land  of  different  character ; 
and  yet  if  observed  in  summer,  when  under  tillage,  some  days  after  a  rain, 
and  when  other  adjacent  land  appears  dry  on  the  surface,  the  part  made 
onus  will  still  show  the  moisture  to  he  yet  remaining,  by  its  darker 
color.  All  the  effects  from  this  power  ol  manures  may  be  observed 

within  a  few  years  after  their  application — though  none  of  them  so  strongly 
marked,  as  they  are  on  lat  are,  and  in  which 

time  has  aided  and  perfected  the  operation.  These  soils  present  great 
variety  in  their  proportions  of  sand  and  clay ;  yet  the  most  clayey  is  friable 
enough,  and  the  most  sandy  firm  and  close  enough,  to  be  considered  soils  of 
good  texture;  ;nid  they  resist  the  extremes  of  both  wet  and  dry  seasons, 
better  than  any  other  soils  whatever.  Time,  and  the  in<  rease  of  vegetable 
matter,  will  bring  I  5  to  the  same  perfection  in   soils  made  calca- 

reous by  artificial  means,  as  they  are  in  soils  made  calcareous  by  nature. 

The  subsequent  gradual  accumulation  of  vegetable' or  other  putrescent 
matter  in  the  soil,  by  the  combining  or  fixing  power  of  calcareous  earth, 
must  have  yet  another  beneficial  effect  on  vegetation.  The  soil  is  thereby 
made  darker  in  color,  and  it  consequently  is  made  warmer,  by  more  freely 
absorbing  the  rays  of  the  Bun. 

Additional  and  practical  proofs  of  all  the  powers  of  calcareous  earth  will 
be  furnished,  when  ils  use  and  effects  as  manure  will  be  stated.  lam 
persuaded,  however,  that  enough  has  already  been  said  both  to  establish  and 
account  for  the  different  ent  byputre 

manures.  If  the  power  of  fixing  manures  in  -oils  has  been  correctly 
ascribed  to  calcareous  earth,  that  alone  is  enough  to  show  that  soils  con- 
taining that  ingredient, in  sufficient  quantity,  rausl  h;  and  that 
aluminous  and  siheious  earths  mixed  in  any  proporl  en  with  ve- 
getable or  other  putrescent  matter  added,  i  in  than  a 
sterile  soil. 


64  CALCARE0U8  MANURES-THEORY. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

ACTION  OF  CAUSTIC  LIME  AS  MANURE.     CLASSIFICATION  OF  MANURES. 

The  object  of  this  essay  is  to  treat  only  of  calcareous  earth  (as  before 
defined)  as  a  manure,  and  not  of  pure  lime,  nor  of  manures  in  general. 
Still  the  nature  of  that  which  is  properly  my  subject  is  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  some  other  kinds  of  manures,  and  is  so  liable  to  be  confounded 
with  others  which  act  very  differently,  that  frequent  references  to  both 
classes  have  been  and  will  be  again  necessary.  To  make  such  references 
more  plain  and  useful,  some  general  remarks  and  opinions  will  now  be 
submitted,  as  to  the  peculiar  modes  of  the  operation  of  various  manures, 
and  particularly  of  lime. 

Until  now  I  have  been  careful  to  say  as  little  as  possible  of  pure  or  quick 
lime,  for  fear  of  my  meaning  being  mistaken,  from  the  usual  practice  of 
confounding  it  with  calcareous  earth ;  or  of  considering  both  its  first  and 
later  operations  as  belonging  to  one  and  the  same  manure.  The  connexion 
between  the  manures  is  so  intimate,  and  yet  their  actions  so  distinct,  that  it 
is  necessary  to  mark  the  points  of  resemblance  as  well  as  those  of  dif- 
ference. 

My  own  use  of  quick  or  caustic  lime  as  a  manure  has  not  extended  be- 
yond a  few  acres ;  and  I  do  not  pretend  to  know  any  thing  from  experience 
of  its  first  or  caustic  effects.  But  Davy's  simple  and  beautiful  theory  of  its 
operation  carries  conviction  with  it,  and  in  accordance  with  his  opinions 
I  shall  state  the  theory,  and  thence  attempt  to  deduce  its  proper  practical 
use. 

By  a  sufficient  degree  of  heat,  the  carbonic  acid  is  driven  off  from  shells, 
lime-stone,  or  chalk,  and  the  remainder  is  pure  or  caustic  lime.  In  this 
state  it  has  a  powerful  decomposing  power  on  all  putrescent  animal  and 
vegetable  matters,  which  it  exerts  on  every  such  substance  in  the  soils  to 
which  it  is  applied  as  manure.  If  the  lime  thus  meets  with  solid  and  inert 
vegetable  matters,  it  hastens  their  decomposition,  renders  them  soluble,  and 
brings  them  into  use  and  action  as  manure.  But  such  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal matters  as  were  already  decomposed,  and  fit  to  support  growing  plants, 
are  injured  by  the  addition  of  lime ;  as  the  chemical  action  which  takes 
place  between  these  bodies  forms  different  compounds,  which  are  always 
less  valuable  than  the  putrid  or  soluble  matters  were,  before  being  acted  on 
by  the  lime.* 

This  theory  will  direct  us  to  expect  profit  from  applying  caustic  lime  to 
all  soils  containing  much  unrotted  and  inert  vegetable  matter,  as  our  acid 
wood-land  when  first  cleared,  and  perhaps  worn  fields,  covered  with  broom- 
grass  ;  and  to  avoid  the  application  of  lime,  or  (what  is  the  same  thing)  to 
destroy  previously  its  caustic  quality  by  exposure  to  the  air,  for  all  good  soils 
containing  soluble  vegetable  or  animal  matters,  and  on  all  poor  soils  deficient 
in  inert,  as  well  as  in  active  nourishment  for  plants.  The  warmth  of  our 
climate  so  much  aids  the  fermentation  of  all  putrescent  matters  in  soils, 
that  it  can  seldom  be  required  to  hasten  it  by  artificial  means.  To  check 
its  rapidity  is  much  more  necessary,  to  avoid  the  waste  of  manures  in  our 
lands.  But  in  England,  and  still  more  in  Scotland,  the  case  is  very  different. 
There,  the  coldness  and  moisture  of  the  climate  greatly  retard  the  fermen- 
tation of  the  vegetable  matter  that  falls  on  the  land ;  so  much  so  that,  in 
certain  situations,  the  most  favorable  to  such  results,  the  vegetable  cover  is 

*  Davy's  Agr.  Chem.  Led.  vii, 


CALCAREOVS  M ANT RES- THEORY.  65 

increased  by  the  deposit?  of  every  successive  year,  and  forms  those  vege- 
table soils  which  B  /.and  tog- lands.  Vegetable  matter 
abounds  in  these  Boils,  and  sometime*  it  even  forms  the  greater  bulk  for 
many  feet  in  depth;  but  It  la  Inert,  insnlul.lt',  and  useless,  and  the  soil  is 
unable  to  bring  any  useful  crop,  though  containing  vegetable  matter  in 
such-  Many  millions  of  acres  in  Britain  are  of  the  different 
grades  of  peat  sails,  of  which  almost  none  exist  In  the  eastern  half  of 
Virginia,  I  ,  uud  of  the  difference  of  climate,  and  its  effects  on 
fermentation,]  deduce  the  opinion  that  cauaticHme  would  be  serviceable 
much  more  generally  in  Britain  than  here;  and  indeed  that  there  are  very 
few  cases  in  which  the  caustic  quality  would  not  do  our  arable  lands  more 
harm  than  good.  This  is  no  contradiction  to  the  great  improvements 
which  have  been  made  on  many  farms  by  applying  lime ;  for  its  caustic 
quality  was  seldom  allowed  to  act  at  all.  Lime  is  continually  changing  to 
the  carbonate  of  lime;  and,  in  practice,  no  exact  line  of  separation  can  be 
drawn  between  the  transient  effects  of  the  one,  and  the  later,  but  durable 
improvement  from  the  other.  Lime  powerfully  attracts  the  carbonic  acid 
of  which  it  was  deprived  by  heat,  and  that  acid  is  universally  diffused 
through  the  atmosphere  (though  in  a  very  small  proportion,)  and  is  pro- 
duced by  every  decomposing  putrescent  substance.  Consequently,  caustic 
lime,  when  on  land,  is  continually  absorbing  and  combining  with  this  acid  ; 
and,  with  more  or  less  rapidity,  according  to  the  manner  of  its  application, 
is  returning  to  its  former  state  of  mild  calcareous  earth.  If  spread  as  a 
top-dressing  on  grass  lands— or  on  ploughed  land,  and  superficially  mixed 
with  the  soil  by  harrowing—  or  used  in  composts  with  fermenting  vegetable 
matter—  the  lime  is  probably  completely  carbonated,  before  its  causticity 
can  act  on  the  soil.  In  no  case  can  lime,  applied  properly  as  manure,  long 
remain  caustic  in  the  soil.  Thus  most  applications  of  lime  are,  ill  effect, 
simply  applications  of  calcareous  earth  but  acting  with  greater  energy  and 
power  at  first,  in  proportion  to  its  quantity,  because  more  finely  divided, 
and  more  equally  distributed. 

Some  account  of  the  mode  of  using  burnt  lime  in  lower  Virginia  by 
many  farmers  who  cannot  as  well  avail  themselves  of  cheaper  means  to 
render  their  lands  calcareous,  and  the  effects  produced,  will  be  given  in  a 
subsequent  part  of  this  essay. 

By  adopting  the  views  which  have  been  presented  of  the  action  of  calca- 
reous earth,  and  of  lime,  as  manures,  and  those  which  are  generally  re- 
ceived as  to  the  modes  of  operation  of  other  manures,  the  following  table 
has  been  constructed,  which  may  be  found  useful,  though  necessarily  im- 
perfect, and  in  part  founded  only  on  conjecture.  The  various  particular 
kinds  of  manures  are  arranged  in  the  supposed  order  of  their  power,  under 
the  several  heads  or  characters  to  which  they  belong ;  and  when  one  ma- 
nure possesses  several  different  modes  of  action,  the  comparative  force  of 
each  is  represented  by  the  letters  annexed—  the  letter  a  designating  its 
strongest  or  most  valuable  agency,  b  the  next  strongest,  and  so  on  as  to  c 
and  d. 


66 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— THEORY. 


PROPOSE!)  CLASSIFICATION  OF  MANCRES. 


[  Alimentary,  or  serving      •{ 

as  food  for  plants—  as 


Solvent  of  alimentary     ■{ 
manures—  as 


f 


Fixers,  or   Mordants — 
serving  to  combine  with 
or  set  other  manures  in 
soils  —  as 


Stimulating— nx 


Specific,  or  furnishing 
ingredients  necessary  for 
particular  plants—  as 


I 


r 

Neutralizing  acids —  as   { 
i 


r 


Mechanical,     or     im- 
proving by  altering  the     \ 
texture  of  soil— as 


I 


Feathers,  hair,  woollen  rags, 

Pounded  bones,  (6) 

All  putrescent  animal  and  vegeta- 
ble substances,  as  dung, 

Stable  and  farm-yard  manures,  (a) 

Straw,  (a) 

Green  crops  ploughed  in,  and  dead 
grass  and  weeds  left  on  the  sur- 
face, (a) 

Quick-lime,  (a) 
Potash  and  soap  lie !  (a) 
Wood  ashes  not  drawn  !  (d) 
Paring  and  burning  the  surface  of 
the  soil,  (a) 

Calcareous  earth,  including 
Lime  become  mild  by  exposure,  (a) 
Chalk,  (a) 

Lime-stone  gravel,  («) 
Wood  ashes,  (b) 
Fossil  shells,  (or  shell  marl,)  (a) 
Marl  (a  calcareous  clay,)  («) 
Old  mortar  and  lime  cements. 

All  calcareous  manures,  (b) 
Quick-lime,  (6) 
Potash  and  soap  lie,  (b) 
Wood  ashes,  (c) 

All  calcareous  manures,  (c) 

Marl,  (b) 

Clay, 

Sand, 

Fermenting  vegetable  manures,  (b) 

Green  manures,  (b) 

Unfermented  litter,  (ft) 

Nitre ! 

Common  salt !  (//) 

Sulphate  of  lime,  or  gypsum,  (for 

clover,) 
Gypseous    earth,   (or    green-sand 

earth,)  for  clover. 
( lalcareous  manures  (for  clover) 
Phosphate  of  lime,  (for  wheat)  in 
Bones,  («.)  and 
Drawn  ashes,  (a) 
Salt,  for  asparagus,  (a) 


ESSAY 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES. 


PART  SECOND— PRACTK  K 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY  AND  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  MARL  ANI>  LIME.    REMARKS  ON  THE 
EXPERIMENTS  TO  FOLLOW. 

Propositions.  Calcareous  manures  uriUgivc  to  our  worst  soils  a  power  of 
ntaemng  putrescent  manure*,  equal  to  that  of  the  best — and  willcause 
more  productiveness,  and  yield  more  profit,  Hum  any  other  improvement 
practicable  in  lower  Virginia. 

The  theory  of  the  constitution  of  fertile  and  barren  soils,  has  now  been 
regularly  discussed.  It  remains  to  show  its  practical  application,  in  the  use 
of  calcareous  earth  as  a  manure.  If  the  opinions  which  have  been  main- 
tained are  unsound,  the  attempt  to  reduce  them  to  practice  will  surely  ex- 
pose their  futility;  and  if  they  pass  through  that  trial,  agreeing  with  and 
confirmed  by  facts,  their  truth  and  value  must  stand  on  impregnable  ground. 
The  belief  in  the  most  important  Of  these  opinions,  (the  incapacity  of  poor 
soils  for  improvement,  and  its  cause,)  first  directed  the  commencement  of 
my  use  of  calcareous  manures-;  and  the  manner  of  my  practice  has  also 
been  directed  entirely  by  the  views  which  have  been  exhibited.  Yet  in 
every  respect  the  results  of  practice  have  sustained  the  theory  of  the  action 
of  calcareous  manures ;  unless  indeed  there  be  claimed  as  exceptions  the 
injuries  which  have  been  caused  by  applying  too  heavy  dressings  to  weak 
lands;  and  also  the  beneficial  effects  of  proper  practice  being  found  to 
exceed  in  degree  what  the  theory  seemed  to  promise. 

My  use  of  calcareous  earth  as  manure  has  been  almost  entirely  confined 
to  that  form  of  it  which  is  so  abundant  in  the  neighborhood  of  our  tide- 
waters—  the  beds  of  fossil  shells,  together  with  the  earth  with  which  they 
are  found  mixed.  The  shells  are  in  various  states—  in  some  beds  generally 
whole,  and  in  others  reduced  nearly  to  a  coarse  powder.  The  earth  which 
fills  their  vacancies,  and  serves  to  make  the  whole  a  compact  mass,  in  most 
cases  is  principally  silicious  sand,  and  contains  no  putrescent  or  valuable 
matter,  other  than  the  calcareous.*  The  same  effects  might  be  expected 
from  calcareous  earth  in  any  other  form,  whether  chalk,  lime-stone  gravel, 

*  From  later  observation  I  have  lorroed  the  opinion  that  the  coloring  matter  of  blue 
marls  is  vegetable  extract,  chemically  combined  with  the  calcareous  matter,  of  which 
opinion  the  grounds  will  be  stated  In  ■  'ill  the  amount  ol  this  vegetable  ad 

mixture  is  too  small  to  have  much  appreciable  effect  a*  food   for  plants  ;  and,  practical!) 
the  general  position  assumed  abo>  e  ma]  pel  be  con  idered  as  .^together  (rue. 


68  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 

wood  ashes,  or  lime—  though  the  two  last  have  other  qualities  besides  the 
calcareous.  During  the  short  time  that  lime  can  remain  quick  or  caustic, 
after  being  applied  as  manure,  it  exerts  (as  before  stated)  a  solvent  power, 
sometimes  beneficial  and  at  others  hurtful,  which  has  no  connexion  with  it? 
subsequent  and  permanent  action  as  calcareous  earth. 

These  natural  deposites  of  fossil  shells  are  commonly,  but  very  impro- 
perly, called  marl.  This  misapplied  term  is  particularly  objectionable,  be- 
cause it  induces  erroneous  views  of  this  manure.  Other  earthy  manures 
have  long  been  used  in  England  under  the  name  of  marl,  and  numerous 
publications  have  described  their  general  effects,  and  recommended  their 
use.  When  the  same  name  is  given  here  to  a  different  manure,  many  per- 
sons will  consider  both  operations  as  similar,  and  perhaps  may  refer  to 
English  authorities  for  the  purpose  of  testing  the  truth  of  my  opinions,  and 
the  results  of  my  practice.  But  no  two  operations  called  by  the  same 
name  can  well  differ  more.  The  process  which  it  is  my  object  to  recom- 
mend, is  simply  the  application  of  calcareous  earth  in  any  farm  whatever, 
to  soils  wanting-  that  ingredient,  and  generally  being  quite  destitute  of  it ; 
and  the  propriety  of  the  application  depends  entirely  on  the  knowing  that 
the  manure  contains  calcareous  earth,  and  what  proportion,  and  that  the 
soil  contains  none.  In  England,  the  most  scientific  agriculturists  apply  the 
term  marl  correctly  to  a  calcareous  clay  of  peculiar  texture;  but  most 
authors,  as  well  as  mere  cultivators,  have  used  it  for  any  smooth  soapy 
clay,  which  may  or  may  not  have  contained,  so  far  as  they  knew,  any  pro- 
portion whatever  of  calcareous  matter.  Indeed,  in  most  cases,  they  seem 
unconscious  of  the  presence  as  well  as  of  the  importance  of  that  ingre- 
dient, by  their  not  alluding  to  it  when  attempting  most  carefully  to  point  out 
the  characters  by  which  marl  may  be  known.  Still  less  do  they  inquire  into 
the  deficiency  of  calcareous  earth  in  soils  proposed  to  be  marled—  but 
apply  any  earth  which  either  science  or  ignorance  may  have  called  marl, 
to  any  soils  within  a  convenient  distance—  and  rely  upon  the  subsequent 
effects  to  direct  whether  the  operation  shall  be  continued  or  abandoned. 
Authors  of  the  highest  character,  (as  Sinclair  and  Young,  for  example,) 
when  telling  of  the  practical  use  and  valuable  effects  of  marl,  omit  giving 
the  strength  of  the  manure,  and  generally  even  its  nature— and  in  no  in- 
stance have  I  found  the  ingredients  of  the.  soil  stated,  so  that  the  reader 
might  learn  what  kind  of  operation  really  was  described,  or  be  enabled  to 
form  a  judgment  of  its  propriety.  From  all  this,  it  follows  that  though 
what  is  called  marling  in  England  may  sometimes  (though  very  rarely,  as 
I  infer,)  be  the  same  chemical  operation  on  the  soil  that  I  am  recommending, 
yet  it  may  also  be  either  applying  clay  to  sand,  or  clay  to  chalk,  or  true 
marl  to  either  of  those  soils ;  and  the  reader  will  generally  be  left  to  guess, 
in  every  separate  case,  which  of  all  these  operations  is  meant  by  the  term 
marling.  For  these  reasons,  the  practical  knowledge  to  be  gathered  from 
all  this  mass  of  written  instruction  on  marling  will  be  far  less  abundant 
than  the  inevitable  errors  and  mistakes.  The  recommendations  of  marl 
by  English  authors,  induced  me  very  early  to  look  to  what  was  here  called 
by  the  same  name,  as  a  means  for  improvement.  But  their  descriptions  of 
the  manure  convinced  me  that  our  marl  was  nothing  like  theirs,  and  thus 
actually  deterred  me  from  using  it,  until  other  and  more  correct  views  in- 
structed me  that  its  value  did  not  depend  on  its  having  "  a  soapy  feel,"  or 
on  any  admixture  of  clay  whatever. 

Nevertheless,  much  valuable  information  may  be  obtained  from  these 
same  works,  on  calcareous  manure,  or  on  marl,  (in  the  sense  that  term  is 
used  among  us) — but  under  a  different  head,  viz.,  time.  This  manure  is  gene- 
rally treated  of  with  as  little  clearness  or  correctness,  as  is  done  with  marl ; 


I   \l.i  1RB01  6    4  \\\  RES     PB  \<   l  1C£  09 

but  tin-  readei   it  least  cannot  be  mistaken  in  this,  that  the  ultimate  effect 

of  every  application  ol  lima  must  ho  to  make  the  soil  more  oatoar is; 

ami  i"  that  cause  Bolely  are  in  be  impnted  all  tin-  long-continued  bi 
consequences,  and  great  profits,  which  have  been  derived  from  liming. 
But  excepting  this  one  point,  in  which  we  cannot  be  misled  by  ignorance 

ol  precision,  the  mass  of  writings  on  lima,  as  well  as  <>n  call 
manures  in  general,  will  Deed  much  sifting  to  yield  instruction.  The  opi- 
nions published  on  the  operation  of  lime  are  so  many,  so  various,  and  o  con- 
tradictory, that  it  si  in  is  as  if  each  author  bad  hazarded  a  guess,  and  added 
a  n>  a  compilation  ol  those  of  all  who  bad  preceded  him.  For  a  reader  of 
these  publications  to  bo  able  to  reject  all  that  is  erroneous  in  reasoning,  ami 
in  statements  of  facts—  or  inapplicable,  on  account  of  difference  of  soil,  or 
other  circumstances— and  thus  obtain  only  what  is  true,  and  useful— it 
would  be  necessary  lor  him  first  to  understand  the  sabjet  I  better  than 

those  whose  opinions  he  was  studying.  Indeed  it  was  not  possible 
tin-  them  to  bo  correct,  when  treating  (as  most  do)  of  lime  as  one  kind  of 
manure,  and  every  different  form  of  the  carbonate  »/  lime  as  so  many 
others.  Only  one  distinction  of  tins  kind  (as  to  operation  ami  effects) 
should  be  made,  and  never  lost  sight  of — and  that  is  one  of  substance,  still 
more  than  of  name.  Pure  or  quick-lime,  and  carbonate  of  lime  arc  ma- 
nures entirely  different  in  their  powers  and  effects,  lint  it  should  be  re- 
membered that  tlio  substance  that  wasjwre  fime.when  jnsi  burned,  often 

bee s  carbonate  of  linn   before  it  is  used,  (by  absorbing  carl icacid 

from  the  atmosphere,) — still  more  frequently  before  a  crop  is  planted — ami 
probably  always  before  the  first  nop  ripens.  Thus,  it  should  !"•  borne  in 
mind  that  the  manure  spoken  of  as  lime  is  often  at  first,  and  always  at  a 
later  period,  neither  more  nor  less  than  calcareous  earth  :  that  lime,  which 
at  different  periods  is  two  distinct  kinds  of  manure,  is  considered  in  agri 
cultural  treatises  as  only  one;  and  to  calcareous  earth  are  given  B8  many 
different  names,  all  considered  to  haw  different  values  and  effects,  as  there' 
are  different  forms  and  mixtures  of  the  substance  presented  by  nature. 

Lint,  however  incorrect  and  inconvenient  the  term  marl  may  be,  custom 
has  too  strongly  fixed  its  application  for  any  proposed  change  to  be  adopt- 
ed.    Therefore,  I  must  submit  to  use  the  won!  marl  to  mean  bed 
slnl/s,  notwithstanding  my  protest  against  the  propriety  of  its  being  so  ap- 
plied. 

The  following  experiments  are  reported,  eithei  on  account  ol  baring 
been  accurately  made  and  carefully  observed,  or  as  presenting  such  results 
B8  have  boon  generally  obtained  on  similar  soils,  from  applications  of  fossil 
shells  to  nearly  six   hundred  acres  of  Coggins  Point  Sum  (madi 

it  had  been  my  habit  to  make  written  memoranda  ol  such  things; 
and  the  material  circumstances  of  these  experiments  werepul  in  writing 
at    the  lime   they  occurred,   Or   not    long   after.      Some   of  I; 

were,  from  their  commencement,  designed  to  be  permanent,  and  their  re- 
sults to  be  measured  as  long  as  circumstani    i  might  permit.    These  were; 
made  with  the  utmost  care.     But  generally,  when  precise  amount 
stated,  the  experiments  were  less  carefully  made,  and  theii  results  reported 
by  guess.     Every  measurement  stated,  ol  land  or  ol  crop,  was  made  in 
my  presence    The  average  strength  of  the  different  marls  used  w 
tained  by  a  sufficient  number  of  analyses;  and  the  quantity  applied  was 
known  by  measuring  some  ol  tin-  loads,  and  havingthem  dropped  at  regular 
distances.     At  the  risk  of  being  tedious,  I  shall  state  et  ery  circumstance  sup- 
posed to  affect  the  results  of  the  experiments;  and  i 
tion.  and  of  reference,  lo  use,  will  require  a  degree  of  .. 

that  few  readers  may  be    he  B€  I  to  give,  to  enable  them  to  derive 


70  (  ALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE 

benefit  of  these  details.  But,  however  disagreeable  it  may  be  to  give  to 
them  the  necessary  attention,  I  will  presume  to  say  that  these  experiments 
deserve  it.  They  will  present  practical  proofs  of  what  otherwise  would  be 
but  uncertain  theory — and  give  to  this  essay  its  principal  claim  to  be  con- 
sidered truly  instructive  and  useful. 

When  these  operations  were  commenced,  I  knew  of  no  other  experi- 
ments having  been  made  with  fossil  shells,  except  two,  which  had  been 
tried  long  before,  and  were  considered  as  proving  the  manure  to  be  too 
worthless  to  be  resorted  to  again. 

The  earliest  of  these  old  experiments  was  made  at  Spring  Garden,  in 
Surry,  about  1775,  by  Mr.  Wm.  Short,  proprietor  of  that  estate.  The  extent 
marled  was  eight  or  ten  acres,  on  poor  sandy  land.  Nothing  is  now  known 
of  the  effects  for  the  first  twenty-five  or  thirty  years,  except  that  they  were 
too  inconsiderable  to  induce  a  repetition  of  the  experiment.  The  system 
of  cultivation  was  doubtless  as  exhausting  as  usual  at  that  time.  Since 
1812,  the  farm  has  been  under  mild  and  improving  management  generally. 
No  care  has  been  taken  to  observe  the  progress  either  of  improvement  or 
exhaustion  on  the  marled  piece;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  product 
has  continued  for  the  last  fifteen  years  better  than  that  of  the  adjacent  land. 
Mr.  Francis  Ruffin,  the  present  owner  of  the  farm,  believed  that  the  pro- 
duct was  not  much  increased  in  favorable  seasons ;  but  when  the  other 
land  suffered,  either  from  too  much  wet,  or  dry  weather,  the  crop  on  the 
marled  land  was  comparatively  but  slightly  injured.  The  loose  reports 
that  have  been  obtained  respecting  this  experiment  are  at  least  conclusive 
in  showing  the  long  duration  of  the  effects  produced. 

The  other  old  experiment  referred  to  was  made  at  Aberdeen,  Prince 
George  county,  in  1803,  by  Mr.  Thomas  Cocke.  Three  small  spots  (nei- 
ther exceeding  thirty  yards  square,)  of  poor  land,  kept  before  and  since 
generally  under  exhausting  culture,  were  covered  with  this  manure.  He 
found  a  very  inconsiderable  early  improvement,  which  he  thought  altoge- 
ther an  inadequate  reward  for  the  labor  of  applying  the  marl.  The  ex- 
periment, being  deemed  of  no  value,  was  but  little  noticed  until  after  the 
commencement  of  my  use  of  the  same  manure.  On  examination,  the  im- 
provement appeared  to  have  increased  greatly  on  two  of  the  pieces,  but 
the  third  was  evidently  the  worse  for  the  application.  For  a  number  of 
years  after  making  this  experiment,  Mr.  Cocke  considered  it  as  giving  full 
proof  of  the  worthlessness  of  the  manure.  But  more  correct  views  of  its 
mode  of  operation,  induced  by  my  experiments  and  reasoning,  induced 
him  to  recommence  its  use;  and  no  one  has  met  with  more  success,  or 
produced  more  valuable  early  improvement. 

Inexperience,  and  the  total  want  of  any  practical  guide,  caused  my  ap- 
plications, for  the  first  few  years,  to  be  frequently  injudicious,  particularly 
as  to  the  quantities  laid  on.  For  this  reason,  these  experiments  will  show 
what  was  actually  done,  and  the  effects  thence  derived,  and  not  what  bet- 
ter information  would  have  directed  as  the  most  profitable  course. 

The  measurements  of  corn  that  will  be  reported  were  all  made  at  the 
time  a»d  place  of  gathering.  The  measure  used  for  all  except  very  small 
quantities  was  a  barrel,  holding  five  bushels  when  filled  level,  and  which 
being  filled  twice  with  ears  of  corn,  well  shaken  to  settle  them,  and  heaped, 
was  estimated  to  make  five  bushels  of  grain;  and  the  products  will  be  re- 
ported in  grain,  according  to  this  estimate.  This  mode  of  measurement 
will  best  serve  for  comparing  results  ;  but  in  most  cases  it  is  far  from  giv- 
ing correctly  the  actual  quantity  of  dry  and  sound  grain,  for  the  following 
reasons.  The  common  large  soft-grained  white  corn  was  the  kind  culti- 
vated, which  was  always  cut  down  for    sowing   wheat  before   the  best 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 


71 


matured  was  dry  enough  to  grind)  or  even  to  be  stored  for  keeping;  and 
when  the  ears  from  the  poorest  land  were  in  a  state  to  lose  considerably 
more  by  shrinking.  Yet,  for  fear  of  some  mistake  occurring  if  measure 
rnents  were  delayed  until  the  crop  was  gathered,  then  experiments  were 

measured  when  the  land  was  ploughed  for  wheat  in  October.  The  subse- 
quent loss  from  shrinking  would  of  course  be  greatest  on  the  corn  from 
the  poorest  and  most  backward  land,  as  the  must  defective  and  unripe 
ears  would  always  be  there  found.  Besides,  every  ear,  however  Imperfect  or 
rotten,  was  included  in  the  measurement.  For  these  several  reasons,  the 
actual  increase  of  product  on  the  mailed  land  was  always  greater  than  will 
appear  from  the  comparison  of  quantities  measured ;  and  from  the  state- 
ments of  all  such  early  measurements,  there  ought  to  be  allowed  a  deduc- 
tion, varying  from  10  or  15  per  cent,  on  the  best  and  most  forward  corn, 
to  30  or  35  pel-  cent,  on  the  latest  and  most  defective.  Having  stated  the 
grounds  of  this  estimate,  practical  men  can  draw  such  conclusions  as  their 
experience  may  direct,  from  the  dates  and  amounts  of  the  actual  measure- 
ments that  will  be  reported.  Some  careful  trials  of  the  amount  of  shrink- 
age in  particular  experiments  will  be  hereafter  stated. 

No  grazing  had  been  permitted  on  any  land  from  which  experiments  will 
be  reported,  since  1814,  (or  since  being  cleared,  if  in  forest  at  that  time,) 
unless  the  contrary  shall  be  specially  stated.  The  cropping  had  also  been 
mild,  during  that  time,  though  previously  it  was  the  usual  exhausting 
three-shift  and  grazing  course. 


CHAPTEK  II. 

EFFECTS  OF  CAI.CAREOl'S   MANURES  ON   ACID  SANDY  SOILS.  NEWLY  CLEARED. 

Proposition  5 — contin  uerf. 

As  most  of  the  experiments  on  new  land  were  made  on  a  single  piece  of 
twenty-six  acres,  a  general  description  or  plan  of  the  whole  will  enable  me 
to  be  better  understood,  as  well  as  to  be  more  concise,  by  references  being 
made  to  the  annexed  figure.  It  forms  part  of  the  ridge  or  high  table  land 
lying  between  James  river  and  the  nearest  stream  running  into 
creek.  The  surface  is  nearly  level,  but  slightly  undulating.  The  soil  in  its 
natural  state  very  similar  throughout,  but  the  part  next  to  the  line    B< 


7-2 


(  AIA'AREOU.S  MANURES— PRACTICE. 


somewhat  more  sandy,  and  more  productive  in  corn,  than  the  part  next 
to  A  D;  and,  in  iike  manner,  it  is  lighter  along  A  e,  than  nearer  to  D/. 
The  whole  soil,  a  gray  sandy  acid  loam,  not  more  than  two  inches  deep  at 
first,  resting  on  a  yellowish  sandy  sub-soil,  from  one  to  two  feet  deep,  when 
it  changes  to  clay.  Natural  growth  mostly  pine— next  in  quantity,  oaks 
of  different  kinds— a  little  of  dogwood  and  chinquepin— whortleberry 
bushes  throughout  in  plenty.  The  quality  of  the  soil  better  than  the  ave- 
rage of  ridge  lands  in  general,  but  yet  quite  poor.  Judging  from  experience 
of  adjoining  grounds  and  similar  soil,  this  land  would  have  produced  as  its 
early  and  best  crop,  and  under  the  best  treatment,  about  12  bushels  of  corn 
to  the  acre,  well  ripened  and  fully  shrunk.  And  if  thereafter  kept  under 
ordinary  culture  and  management,  the  products  would  have  gradually  and 
speedily  sunk  to  5  bushels  to  the  acre.  Being  still  less  suitable  to  wheat, 
that  crop  would  have  been  scarcely  worth  being  sown  on  the  land  in  its 
best  natural  state,  (when  the  product  might  be  C  bushels,)  and  certainly 
not  at  all  after  a  few  years  of  the  usual  downward  progress.  The  effects  of 
putrescent  manures  were  very  transient,  as  on  all  such  poor  lands. 

Experiment  1. 

The  part  B  C  g  h,  about  eleven  acres,  grubbed  and  the  trees  cut  down 
in  the  winter  of  1814-15— suffered  to  lie  three  years  with  most  of  the 
wood  and  brush  on  it.  February,  1818,  my  earliest  application  of  marl 
was  made  on  the  smaller  part  B  C  m  I,  about  1\  acres.  Marl,  containing 
33  per  cent,  of  pure  calcareous  earth,  and  the  balance  silicious  sand,  ex- 
cept a  very  small  proportion  of  clay;  the  shelly  matter  finely  divided. 
Quantity  of  marl  to  the  acre,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  to  two  hundred 
heaped  bushels.  The  whole  space  B  C  g  h  coultered,  and  planted  in  its 
first  crop  of  corn  in  1818.  This  was  my  earliest  experiment  of  calcareous 
manures. 

Results.  1818.  The  corn  on  the  marled  land  evidently  much  better — 
supposed  difference,  forty  per  cent. 

1819.  In  wheat.  The  difference  as  great,  perhaps  more  so — particularly 
to  be  remarked  from  the  commencement  to  the  end  of  the  winter,  by  the 
marled  part  preserving  a  green  color,  while  the  remainder  was  seldom 
visible  from  a  short  distance,  and  in  the  spring  stood  much  thinner,  from 
the  greater  number  of  plants  killed  during  the  winter.  The  line  of  separa- 
tion very  perceptible  throughout  both  crops. 

1820.  At  rest.  During  the  summer  marled  all  B  C  g  h,  at  the  rate  of  five 
hundred  bushels,  without  excepting  the  space  before  covered,  and  a  small 
part  of  that  made  as  heavy  as  one  thousand  bushels,  counting  both  dress- 
ings. The  shells  now  generally  coarse— average  strength  of  the  marl,  37 
per  cent,  of  calcareous  earth.  In  the  winter  after,  ploughed  three  inches 
deep  only,  as  nearly  as  could  be;  which  however,  shallow  as  it  was,  made 
the  whole  new  surface  yellow,  by  bringing  the  barren  sub-soil  of  yellow 
sand  to  the  top.  One  of  my  neighbors,  an  intelligent  and  experienced 
farmer,  who  saw  the  land  when  in  this  state,  pronounced  that  I  "had  ruined 
the  land  for  ever,  by  ploughing  and  turning  the  soil  too  deep." 

Results  continued,  1821.  In  corn.  The  whole  a  remarkable  growth  for 
such  a  soil.  The  oldest  (and  heaviest)  marled  piece  better  than  the  other, 
but  not  enough  so  to  show  the  dividing  line.  The  average  product  of  the 
whole  supposed  to  have  been  fully  twenty-five  bushels  of  ripe  and  good 
corn  to  the  acre. 

1822.  In  wheat— and  red  clover  sowed  on  all  the  old  marling,  and  one 
or  two  acres  adjoining.     A  severe  drought  in  June  killed  the  greater  part 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES    PRACTICE.  73 

or  the  clover,  but  left  it  much  the  thickest  oa  the  oldest  marled  piece,  so  as 
again  to  show  the  dividing  line,  and  to  field,  in  1888,  two  middling  .crops 
to  the  scythe  — the  first  that  I  had  known  Obtained  from  any  add  soil,  with- 
out high  improvement  from  putrescent  manures. 

\t  rest— nothing  taken  off,  except  (he  clover  on  I!  C  Dl  /. 

1824.  in  com  —  product  seemed  as  before,  and  its  rate  maybe  inferred 
from  the  actual  measurements  on  other  parts,  which  will  be  stated  in  the 
next  experiment,  the  whole  twenty-six  acres  being  now  cleared,  and  brought 
under  like  cultivation. 

Experiment  2. 

The  part  cfn  0,  cleared  and  cultivated  in  corn  at  the  same  times  as  the 
preceding— but  treated  differently  in  some  other  respects.  This  had  been 
deprived  of  nearly  all  its  wood,  and  the  brush  burnt,  at  the  time  of  cutting 
down- and  its  first  crop  of  corn  (1818)  being  very  inferior,  was  not  fol- 
lowed by  wheat  in  1819,  because  promising  too  little  product  to  pay  for  the 
cost  of  the  crop.  This  gave  two  years  of  rest  before  the  crop  of  1821  — 
and  five  years  rest  out  of  six,  since  the  piece  had  been  cut  down.  As  I 
fore  stated,  the  soil  rather  lighter  on  the  side  next  to  0  e,  than  nf. 

March,  1821.  A  measured  acre  near  the  middle,  covered  with  six  hun- 
dred bushels  of  calcareous  sand,  containing  20  percent,  of  calcareous  earth, 
the  upper  layer  of  another  body  of  fossil  shells. 

R,  suits.    1821.   In   corn.     October— the   four  adjoining  quarter  acres, 
marked  1,  2,  3,  4,  extending  nearly  across  the  piece,  two  of  them  within, 
and  two  without  the  marled  part,  measured  as  follows: 
\ot  marled,  No.   1,       6f   )  ..  or>]  ,      ,   ,      r 

Do  No    4        5i   \  averaSe  t0  tne  acre  ~~i  bushels  of  grain. 

Marled,        No.  2,'       8£   i  001  .      ,    . 

Do.  No.  3,       8*    \   aVeraSe  o3i  bushels" 

The  remainder  of  this  piece  was  marled  before  sowing  wheat  in  1821. 
I--J.I.  At  rest. 

1821.  In  corn — distance  5  A  by  3\  feet,  making  2430  stalks  to  the  acre. 
October  1 1th,  measured  two  quarter  acres  very  nearly  coinciding  with  Nos. 
2  and  3  in  the  last  measurement.     The  products  now  were  as  follows : 
No  2  brought  7  bushels  3J  pecks,         i 

or  per  acre,  -        -        -3l.lv  average  3 1 .24 

No  3  brought  8  bushels,      -        -  32     ) 

Average  in  1821,         ....  33.1 

}'..rpcriment  3. 

The  part  efg  h  was  cut  down  in  January,  1821,  and  the  land  planted 
in  corn  the  same  year.  The  coultering  and  after-tillage  very'  badly  exe- 
cuted, on  account  of  the  number  of  whortleberry  and  other  roots.  As 
much  as  was  convenient  was  marled  at  six  hundred  bushels,  37  per  cent, 
and  the  dressing  limited  by  a  straight  line.  Distance  of  corn  5i  bj 
feet— 2262  stalks  to  the  acre. 

Results.   1821.  October— on  each  side  of  the  dividing  line,  a  piece  of 
twenty-eight  by  twenty-one  corn  hills  measured  as  follows  : 
No.  1, 588  stalks,  not  marled,  2  bushels,  equal  to  7  bushels  3  pecks  the  acre. 
No.  2,  588  stalks,  marled,       4}  16  bushels  2  {  pecks. 

I  -  J  J.  In  wheat,  the  remainder  having  been  previously  marled. 

1823.  At  rest.  During  the  following  winter  it  was  covered  with  a 
second  dressing  of  marl  at  250  bushels,  45  per  cent.,  making  850  bushels  to 
the  acre  altogether. 


74  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 

1824.  In  corn.     Two  quarter  acres,  chosen  as  nearly  as  possible  on  the 
same  spaces  that  were  measured  in  1821,  produced  as  follows: 

No.  1  made  8  bushels,  2  pecks,  or  to  the  acre,    34  bushels. 
The  same  in  1821,  before  marling,  7.3| 


26.0| 


No.  2  made  7  bushels,  2i  pecks,  or  to  the  acre,  30.2 
The  same  in  1821,  after  marling-,  16.2j 


Increase  average, 13.34 

The  second  dressing  of  marl,  or  the  larger  quantity,  had  but  little  effect 
in  making  the  increase  of  crops  greater  than  in  1821.  The  difference  was 
caused  mainly  by  the  greater  length  of  time  since  the  clearing  of  the  land. 
1825.  The  whole  twenty-six  acres,  including  the  subjects  of  all  these  ex- 
periments and  observations,  were  in  wheat.  The  first  marled  piece,  in 
Exp.  1,  was  decidedly  the  best — and  a  gradual  decline  was  to  be  seen  to 
the  latest.  I  have  never  measured  the  product  of  wheat  from  any  experi- 
ment, on  account  of  the  great  trouble  and  difficulty  that  would  be  encoun- 
tered. Even  if  the  wheat  from  small  measured  spaces  could  be  reaped 
and  secured  separately,  during  the  urgent  labors  of  harvest,  it  would  be 
scarcely  possible  afterwards  to  carry  the  different  parcels  through  all  the 
operations  necessary  to  show  exactly  the  clean  grain  derived  from  each. 
But  without  any  separate  measurement,  all  my  observations  convince  me 
that  the  increase  of  wheat,  from  marling,  was  at  least  equal  to  that  of  corn, 
during  the  first  few  years,  and  certainly  greater  afterwards,  in  compari- 
son to  the  product  before  using  marl. 

It  was  from  the  heaviest  marled  part  of  Exp.  1,  that  soil  was  analyzed 
to  find  how  much  calcareous  earth  remained  in  1826,  (page  50.)  Before 
that  time  the  marl  and  soil  had  been  well  mixed  by  ploughing  to  the  depth 
of  five  inches.  One  of  the  specimens  of  this  soil  then  examined  consisted 
of  the  following  parts— half  an  inch  of  the  surface,  and  consequently  the 
undecomposed  weeds  upon  it,  being  excluded. 
1 000  grains  of  soil  yielded 

769  grains  of  silicious  sand  moderately  fine, 
15         finer  sand, 

784 

8  calcareous  earth,  from  the  manure  applied, 

180  finely  divided  gray  clay,  vegetable  matter,  &c. 

28  lost  in  the  process. 

1000 

This  part,  it  has  been  already  stated,  was  originally  somewhat  lighter 
than  the  general  texture  of  the  remainder  of  the  land. 

Experiment  4. 

The  four  acres  marked  ADno  were  cleared  in  the  winter  of  1823-4. 
The  lines  p  q  and  r  s  divide  the  piece  nearly  into  quarters.  The  end  nearest 
A  p  o  is  lighter,  and  best  for  corn,  and  was  still  better  for  the  first  crop, 
owing  to  nearly  all  that  half  having  been  accidentally  burnt  over.  After  twice 
coultering,  marl  and  putrescent  manures  were  applied  as  follows ;  and  the 
products  measured,  October  1 1  th,  the  same  year, 


GAtCARBOl  8  M  \M'i;i's    PRACTICE  75 

sq  not  marled  nor  manured — produced  on  •!  querta   acre, (No    1,  ol 

soft  and  baary  rilled  corn, 

Buflh.P. 
3  bushels, or  per  acre      12. 

7  »•  and  r  p,  marled  800  bushels  (15  per  cent.)  l)y  three  mea- 
surements of  different  pieces — 

Uuarter  acre  (No.  1.)  5  bushels,  very  nearly,  or  per  acre  l'J.3i 

Eighth  (No.  2)  ■;.:;',  s  average?  22.2 

Eighth  (No.  3)  3.1*$    211       v  27. 

•  I  manured  at  900  to  1 100  bushels  to  the  acre,  of  which, 
Quarter  acre  (No.  5)  with  rutted  corn  stalks,  from  a  winter 

cow-pen,  gave  5.2  i 22.2 

Eighth  (No.  6)  with  stable  manure,  4.1|         -         -         -         35.2 

Eighth  (No.  7)  covered  with  the  same  heavy  dressings 

of  stable  manure,  and  of  marl  also,  gave  4.2  36. 

s  V,  marled  at  450  bushels,  brought  not  so  good  a  crop  as 
the  adjoining  r  p  at  800. 

The  distance  was  5j  by  3J  feet.  Two  of  the  quarter  acres  were  mea- 
sured by  a  surveyor's  chain,  (as  were  four  other  of  the  experiments  of 
1 824,)  and  found  to  vary  so  little  from  the  distance  counted  by  corn  rows, 
that  the  difference  was  not  worth  notice. 

1825.  In  wheat,  the  different  marked  pieces  seemed  to  yield  in  compari- 
son to  each  other,  proportions  not  perceptibly  different  from  those  of  the 
preceding  crop— -but  the  best  not  equal  to  any  of  the  land  marled  before 
1822,  as  stated  in  the  1st,  2d  and  3d  experiments. 

1S27.  Wheat  on  a  very  rough  and  imperfect  summer  fallow.  This  was 
too  exhausting  a  course  (being  three  grain  crops  in  the  four  shift  rotation,) 
—but  was  considered  necessary  to  check  the  growth  of  bushes  that  had 
sprung  from  the  roots  still  living.  The  crop  was  small,  as  might  have  been 
expected  from  its  bad  preparation. 

1828.  Corn— in  mws  live  feet  apart,  and  about  three  feet  of  distance 
along  the  rows,  the  seed  being  dropped  by  the  step.  Owing  to  unfavorable 
weather,  and  to  insects  and  other  vermin,  not  more  than  half  of  the  first 
planting  of  this  field  lived  — and  SO  much  replanting  of  course  caused  its 
product  to  be  much  less  matured  than  usual,  on  the  weaker  land.  All  the 
part  not  marled  (and  more  particularly  that  manured)  was  so  covered  by 
sorrel,  as  to  require  ten  times  as  much  labor  in  weeding  as  the  marled 
parts,  which,  as  in  every  other  such  case,  bore  no  sorrel.  October  15th, 
gathered  and  measured  the  corn  from  the  several  spaces,  which  were 
laid  off  (by  the  chain)  as  nearly  as  could  be,  on  the  same  land  as  in  1824. 
The  products  so  obtained,  together  with  those  of  the  previous  and  sub- 
sequent courses  of  tillage,  will  be  presented  below  in  a  tabular  form,  for 
the  purpose  of  being  more  readily  compared. 

On  the  wheat  succeeding  this  crop,  clover  seed  was  sown,  but  very 
thinly,  and  irregularly.  On  the  parts  not  marled,  only  a  few  yards  width 
received  seed,  which  the  next  year  showed  the  expected  result  of  scarcely 
any  living  clover,  and  that  very  mean.  On  the  marled  portions,  the  growth 
of  clover  was  of  middling  quality.  Was  not  mowed  nor  grazed,  but  seed 
gathered  by  hand  both  in  1830  and  1831. 

1832.  Again  in  corn.  It  was  soon  evident  that  much  injury  wae 
to  the  marled  half  q  p  o  n,  by  the  too  great  quantity  applied.  A  considera- 
ble proportion  of  the  stalks,  during  their  growth,  showed  strongly  the 
marks  of  disease  from  that  cause,  and  some  were  rendered  entirely  barren. 
A  few  stalks  only  had  appeared  hurt  by  the  quantity  of  marl  in  1828.  «>n 
the  lightly  marled  piece,  w  p.  and  also  on  u  t,  when-  the  heaviest  marling 


76 


i  A.LCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTK  1 


was  accompanied  by  stable  manure,  there   appeared  no  sign  of  injury 
The  products  of  the  three  successive  crops  were  as  follows: 


MARKS . 

1         PRODUCTS   OF  GRAIN    PKR  ACRE. 

description.                 i   1st  course. 

2d  course. 

3d  course. 

1S24. 

182* 

1832. 

October  11. 

October  15 

October  2fi 

Bush,  pecks 

Bush.  pks. 

Bush.  pks. 

'  2 

Not  marled  or  manured,                     12 

21      1 

17     3J 

qr   1 

Marled  at  800  bushels,                       19        3J 

28      1} 

28 

rp  2 
Tp  3 

The  same,                                            22        2      ) 
The  same,                                            27               ) 

31     0\ 

27     3 

st    5 

Cow-pen  manure  only,  908  to  1100 

bushels,                                                22         2 

25     2 

more  than  sq 

st    6 

Stable  manure  only,  900  to  1100 

bushels,                                             35        2 

29 

2S     1 

ID  t  7 

Marl   and  stable  manure,  both  as 

above,                                            36 

33     2 

37     3  J 

wp 

Marled  at  450  bushels,                     Less  than  r  } 
P  (800)    5 

Equal  tor/> 

31     3 

An  accidental  omission  prevented  the  measurement  of  s  t  5,  in  1832. 

This  experiment  has  been  made  with  much  trouble,  and  every  care  be- 
stowed to  ensure  accuracy.  Still  several  causes  have  operated  to  affect 
the  correctness  of  the  results,  and  to  prevent  the  comparative  products 
showing  the  true  rate  of  improvement,  either  from  the  marl  or  the  putres- 
cent manure.     These  causes  will  be  briefly  stated. 

1st.  The  quantity  of  marl  (800  bushels)  on  q  r  and  r  p  is  nearly  double 
the  amount  that  ought  to  have  been  used  ;  and  this  error  has  not  only  in- 
creased the  expense  uselessly,  but  has  served  to  prevent  the  increase  of 
product  that  would  otherwise  have  taken  place.  This  loss  is  proved  by 
the  gradual  increase,  and  at  last  the  greater  product  of  w  p,  marled  at  only 
450  bushels. 

2d,  The  comparative  superiority  of  all  the  marled  ground  to  s  q,  not 
marled,  is  lessened  by  this  circumstance :  most  of  the  large  logs,  as  well 
as  all  the  small  branches,  were  burnt  upon  the  land,  when  it  was  cleared 
in  1 824,  before  the  experiment  was  commenced  ;  and  the  ashes  have  dura- 
bly improved  a  spot  where  each  of  these  large  fires  was  made  on  s  q,  but 
have  done  no  good,  and  perhaps  have  been  injurious,  to  the  marled  pieces 
that  were  made  sufficiently  calcareous  without  the  addition  of  ashes.  At 
least,  the  good  effect  of  ashes,  on  spots,  is  very  evident  in  a  q,  and  has 
helped  somewhat  to  increase  all  its  measured  products,  and  no  such  benefit 
has  been  visible  on  the  marled  parts. 

3rd.  The  quantity  of  putrescent  manure  applied  to  .it  (900  to  1100 
bushels)  was  much  too  great  both  for  fair  experiment  and  profit ;  and  the  ex- 
cess of  quantity,  together  with  the  imperfectly  rotted  state  of  the  stable 
manure,  has  given  more  durability  to  the  effect,  than  is  to  be  ex  pec  ted  from 
a  more  judicious  and  economical  rate  of  manuring  on  such  land  when  not 
marled.  For  these  several  reasons,  it  is  evident  that  far  more  satisfactory 
results  than  even  these  would  have  been  obtained,  if  only  half  as  much  ol 
either  marl  or  manure  had  been  applied. 

There  are  other  circumstances  to  be  considered,  which,  if  not  attended 
to,  will  cause  the  comparative  increase  or  decrease  of  product  in  this  ex- 
periment to  be  misunderstood.  It  is  well  known  that  poor  land  put  under 
tillage  immediately  after  being  cleared,  as  this  was  in  1824,  will  not  yield 
near  as  much  as  on  the  next  succeeding  course  of  crops.     This  increase. 


C  \U   UtEOl'S  MANURES     l'KAi   I  m  i 


77 


which  depends  merely  on  the  effei  ts  ol  time,  operates  independently  of  all 
other  means  for  improvement  that  the  land  ma]  audits  rate,  in 

this  experiment,  may  be  fairly  estimated  by  the  increase  on  the  | 
from  1824  to  1828.     The  increase  here,  where  time  only  acted,  was  from 
12  to  21  j  bushels,     But  as  the  corn  gathered  here  was  always  n 
most  imperfectly  ripened,  and  would  therefore  lose  the  most  by  shrinking, 
I  will  suppose  eight  bushels  tube  the  rate  of  increase  from  time,  and  thai 
so  much  "i  the  product  of  all  the  pieces  should  be  attributed  to  that 
Thou  to  estimate  alone  the  increased  or  diminished  effects  of  marl,  or  ma- 
nure "ii  the  other  pieces,  eight  bushels  should  be  deducted  from  all  the 
nt  applications,  and  the  estimate  will  stand  thus: 


1824.              L828 

1,| 

1 

1 

Q 

Ii     P. 
IS  ::.'. 
22    •>    ) 

27    "    )"'   '- 
22    2 

H.    I>. 
28    li 
31 

25 
29 

B. 

8 

> 

8 
8 

B  P. 

0  2 

B    P. 

From  800  bushels  of  mm  1, 

800  bushels  of  marl. 

1000  bush,  cow-pen  manure 
1000  bush,  stable   n 

rp2 
r  p  :t 
s  I  ii 
I  t  6 

1  11 
5  2 
14  2 

Even  the  piece  covered  with  both  marl  and  stable  manure  (w  t)  shows 
according  to  this  estimate  a  diminished  effect  equal  to  101  bushels;  which 
was  owing  to  the  marl  not  being  able  to  combine  with,  and  fix,  so 
quantity  of  manure,  in  addition  to  the  vegetable  matter  left  by  its  natural 
growth  of  wood.  The  piece  wp,  marled  at  150  bushels  alone,  has  shown 
a  steady  increase  of  product  at  each  return  of  tillage,  and  thereby  has 
given  evidence  ol  its  b  ing  the  only  improvement  made  in  such  manner  as 
both  judgment  and  economy  would  have  directed. 

Alter  the  crop  and  measurement  of  1 832,  it  was  inferred  that  the  separate 
products  of  such  small  spaces  could  no  longei  be  relied  on,  owing  to  the 
mixture  of  the  surfaces  ol  .   tillage 

Therefore  the  previously  omitted  parts  were  marled  before  the  next  course 
of  crops  i  ame  round. 


CHAPTER  III. 


EFFECTS  OF  CALCAREOUS  MANURE  ON  ACID  Ol  CENTLY  CI  EARED 


The  two  next  experiments  were  made  on  another  field  oi  thirt)  acres  ol 
very  uniform  quality,  marled  and  cleared  in  1826  and  the  succeeding 
years.  The  soil  is  very  stiff,  close,  and  intractable  under  cultivation— 
'contain  scarcely  any  sand— but,  in  fact,  about  one-half  of  it  is 
composed  of  silicious  sand,  which  is  so  fine,  when  separated,  as  to  feel  like 
the  finest  flour,     only  a  small  proportion  of  tl  irset   than  this 

state  of  impalpable  powder.     Aluminous  earth  of  a  dirty  fawn  color  hums 
nearly  all  of  its  remaining  ingredients.     Before  being  cleared  ol  I 
growth,  and  ploughed,  the  soil  is  not  an  inch  deep:  and  all  below,  for  many 
feet,  Is  apparently  compose, I  of  the  like  parts  of  clay  and   line  sand.     This 

edly  the  most  worthless  kind  of  soil,  In  its  natural  state,  > 

district  furnishes,     it  is  better  for  wheat  than  for  com,  though  its  product 

is  contemptible  in  everj  thing.     II  isdifficull  to  be  made  wet,  or  dry— and 

ij  -  from  both  dry  and  wpi  seasons,  IjuI 

l<> 


78  CALCAREOUS  MAM  RES— PRACTICE. 

especially  from  the  former.  It  is  almost  always  either  too  wet  or  too  dry 
for  ploughing ;  and  sometimes  it  will  pass  through  both  states  in  two  or 
three  clear  and  warm  days.  If  broken  up  early  in  winter,  the  soil,  instead 
of  being  pulverized  by  frost,  like  most  clay  lands,  runs  together  again  by 
freezing  and  thawing ;  and  by  March,  will  have  a  sleek  (though  not  a  very 
even)  crust  upon  the  surface,  quite  too  hard  to  plant  on  without  a  second 
ploughing.  The  natural  growth  is  principally  white  and  red  oaks,  a  smaller 
proportion  of  pine,  and  an  under-growth  of  whortleberry  bushes  throughout. 

Experiment  5. 

On  one  side  of  this  field  a  marked  spot  of  thirty-five  yards  square  was 
left  out,  when  the  adjoining  land  was  marled  at  the  rate  of  five  hundred  to 
six  hundred  bushels,  (37  per  cent.,)  to  the  acre.  Paths  for  the  carts  were 
opened  through  the  trees,  and  the  marl  dropped  and  spread  in  January, 
1826,  and  the  land  cleared  the  following  winter.  Most  of  the  wood  was 
carried  off  for  fuel ;  the  remaining  logs  and  brush  burnt  on  the  ground,  as 
usual,  at  such  irregular  distances  as  were  convenient  to  the  laborers.  This 
part  was  perhaps  the  poorer,  because  wood  had  previously  been  cut  here 
for  fuel ;  though  only  a  few  trees  had  been  taken,  here  and  there,  each 
winter,  for  a  long  time  past. 

Results,  1827.  Planted  in  corn  the  whole  recent  clearing  of  fifteen  acres 
— all  marled,  except  the  spot  left  out  for  experiment :  broken  up  late  and 
badly,  and  worse  tilled,  as  the  land  was  generally  too  hard,  until  the  season 
■was  too  far  advanced  to  save  the  crop.  The  whole  product  so  small,  that 
it  was  useless  to  attempt  to  measure  the  products.  The  difference  would 
have  been  only  between  a  few  imperfect  ears  on  the  marled  ground,  and 
still  less — indeed  almost  nothing— on  that  not  marled. 

1828.  Again  in  corn— as  well  broken  and  cultivated  as  usual  for  such 
land.  October  8th—  cut  down  four  rows  of  corn  running  through  the  land 
not  marled,  and  eight  others,  alongside  on  the  marled—  all  fifty  feet  in  length. 
The  rows  had  been  laid  off  for  five  and  a  half  feet— but  were  found  to 
vary  a  few  inches— for  which  the  proper  allowance  was  made,  by  calcula- 
tion. The  spaces  taken  for  measurement  were  caused  to  be  thus  small  by 
a  part  of  the  corn  having  been  inadvertently  cut  down  and  shocked,  just 
before.  The  ears  were  shelled  when  gathered  ;  and  the  products,  measured 
in  a  vessel  which  held  (by  trial)  l-80th  of  a  bushel,  were  as  follows: 

On  land  not  marled, 
4  rows,  average  5  feet,  and  50  in  length,  (500  square  feet)     13?  measures, 

or  to  the  acre, 7\  bushels. 

On  adjoining  marled  land 
4  rows,  average  5  feet  1?  inches  by  50  feet=512  square  feet,     25|  measures, 

or  to  the  acre, 13A  bushels. 

4  next  rows,  5  feet  4i  inches  by  50=537  square  feet,  27i  measures, 

or  to  the  acre, 14  bushels. 

1 829.  In  wheat. 

1830.  At  rest — the  weeds,  a  scanty  cover. 

1831.  In  corn.  October  20th— measured  by  the  chain  equal  spaces, 
and  gathered  and  measured  their  products.  The  corn  not  marled  was  so 
imperfectly  filled,  that  it  was  necessary  to  shell  it,  for  fairly  measuring  the 
quantity.  The  marled  parcels,  being  of  good  ears  generally,  were  mea- 
sured as  usual,  by  allowing  two  heaped  measures  of  ears,  for  one  of  grain. 

On  land  not  marled, 

363  square  yards  made 3  gallons, 

or  to  the  acre, 5  bushels. 


.    \l.(    \Kl.ol  -    M  \M'KI'.S-  I'KA.I  h  I 


79 


On  marled  land,  close  adjoining  on  one  side, 
363  square  yards  made  rather  more  than  G  gallons— to  the  acre,  10  bushels. 
363  square  yards  on  another  side,  made  not  quite  8  gallons, 

or  to  the  acre, 12  bushels. 

The  piece  dot  marled  coincided  with  that  measured  in  1S28,  as  nearly 
as  their  difference  of  size  and  shape  permitted— as  did  the  last  named 
marled  piece,  with  the  two  of  1828.  The  Inst  crop  was  greatly  injured 
by  the  wettest  summer  that  I  have  ever  known,  which  has  caused  the 
decrease  of  product  exhibited  in  this  experiment— which  will  be  best  seen 
in  this  form  : 

Product  ol  grain  lo  the  acre. 

1828— October  18.         1831— October  20. 
Not  marled,        -        -         -     7  bushels  1  peck.         -         5  bushels. 
Marled,  (averaged,)    -        -  13      "        3    "  1 1 

Exp<  rim*  nt  6. 


The  remainder  of  the  thirty  acres  was  grubbed  during  the  winter  of 
1826-7— marled  the  next  summer  at  five  hundred  to  six  hundred  bushels  the 
acre;  marl  40  per  cent.  A  rectangle  (A)  11  by  13  poles,  was  laid  off  by 
the  chain  and  compass,  and  left  without  marl.  All  the  surrounding  land 
supposed  to  be  equal  in  quality  with  A— and  all  level,  except  on  the  sides 
B  and  I!,  which  were  partly  sloping,  hut  not  otherwise  different.  The  soil 
suited  to  the  general  description  given  before;  no  material  difference  known 
or  suspected  between  the  land  on  which  5th  experiment  was  made  and  this, 
except  that  the  latter  had  not  been  robbed  of  any  wood  lor  fuel,  before 
clearing.  The  large  trees  (or  all  more  than  ten  inches  through,)  were 
belted,  and  the  smaller  cut  down  in  the  beginning  of  1828,  and  all  the  land 
west  of  the  line  e  f  was  planted  in  corn.  As  usual,  the  tillage  bad,  and  the 
crop  very  small.  The  balance  ly in lt  east  of  i  f,  was  coultered  once,  but  as 
more  labor  could  not  be  spared,  nothing  more  was  done  with  it  until  the 
latter  part  of  the  winter,  1820,  when  it  was  broken  by  two-horse  ploughs, 
oats  sown  and  covered  by  trowel  ploughs— then  clover  sown,  and  a 
wooden-tooth  harrow  passed  over  to  cover  the  seed,  and  to  smooth  down, 
in  some  measure,  the  masses  of  roots  and  clods 

idly—  but  yielded  more  for  the 
labor  required  than  corn  would  have  done  The  young  clover  on  the  marled 
land  was  remarkably  good,  and  covered  the  surface  completely,  In  the 
unmarled  part,  A.  only  two  casts  through  had  been  sown,  for  comparison, 
as  I  knew  it  would  be  a  waste  of  seed.  This  looked  as  badly  as  had  been 
expected. 


qq  CALCAREOUS   MANURES  -PUA4  111): 

1830.  The  crop  of  clover  would  nave  lieen  considered  excellent  even 
on  good  land,  and  was  most  remarkable  for  so  poor  a  soil  as  this.  The  strips 
sown  through  A,  had  but  little  left  alive,  and  that  scarcely  of  a  size  to  be 
observed,  except  one  or  two  small  tufts,  where  I  supposed  some  marl  had 
been  deposited  by  the  cleaning  of  a  plough,  or  that  ashes  had  been  left,  from 
burning  the  brush.  The  growth  of  clover  was  left  undisturbed  until  after 
midsummer,  when  it  was  grazed  by  my  small  stock  of  cattle,  but  not 
closely. 

1S31.  Corn  on  the  whole  field.  October  20th,  measured  carefully  half 
an  acre  (10  by  8  poles)  in  A,  the  same  in  D,  and  half  as  much  (10  by  4) 
in  E.  No  more  space  could  be  taken  on  this  side,  for  fear  of  getting  within 
the  injurious  influence  of  the  contiguous  woods.  Xo  measurement  was 
made  on  the  side  B,  because  a  large  oak,  which  the  belting  had  not  killed, 
affected  its  product  considerably.  Another  accidental  circumstance  pre- 
vented my  being  able  to  know  the  product  of  the  side  C,  which  however 
was  evidently  and  greatly  inferior  to  all  the  marled  land  on  which  oats  and 
clover  had  been  raised.  This  side  had  been  in  corn,  followed  by  wheat, 
and  next  (1S30)  under  its  spontaneous  growth  of  weeds.  The  corn  on  each  of 
the  measured  spaces*  was  cut  down,  and  put  in  separate  shocks— and  on 
Nov.  25th,  when  well  dried,  the  parcels  were  shucked  and  measured,  before 
being  moved.  We  had  then  been  gathering  and  storing  the  crop  for  more 
than  fifteen  da3-s —and  therefore  these  measurements  may  be  considered  as 
showing  the  amount  of  dry  and  firm  grain,  without  any  unusual  deduction 
being  required  for  shrinkage. 

Bushels.  Pecks. 
A  (half  acre)  made  7$  bushels  of  ears,  or  of  grain  to  the  acre,      7         1 
D  (half  acre)            I63             ..."---  10         3 

E  (quarter  acre)       11  22 

The  sloping  surface  of  the  side  E,  prevented  water  from  lying  on  it.  and 
therefore  it  suffered  less,  perhaps  not  at  all,  from  the  extreme  wetness  of 
the  summer,  which  evidently  injured  the  growth  on  A  and  D,  as  well  as  of 
all  the  other  level  parts  of  the  field. 
The  field  in  wheat. 

In  clover,  which  was  grazed,  though   not  closely,  after   it  had 
reached  its  full  growth. 

[834.  Corn,  a  year  earlier  than  would  have  been  permitted  by  the  four- 
shift  rotation.  The  tillage  was  insufficient,  and  made  still  worse  by  the 
commencement  of  severe  drought  before  the  last  ploughing  was  completed, 
which  was  thereby  rendered  very  laborious,  and  imperfect  withal.  Tin 
drought  continued  through  all  August,  and  greatly  injured  the  whole  crop 
of  corn. 

Results  continued.  October  22d.  Marked  off  by  a  chain  half  an  aero 
within  the  space  A  (3  by  10  poles)  as  much  in  D,  and  a  quarter  acre  (10  by 
4  poles)  in  each  of  the  other  three  sides  C,  B,  and  E,  having  each  of  the 
last  four  spaces  as  near  as  could  be  to  the  outlines  of  the  space  A.  The 
products  carefully  measured  (in  the  ears)  yielded  as  follows  : 

A,  not  marled,  yielded  G  bush.  0i  pock  of  grain,  to  the  acre. 
U,  marled,  "       19    "     3i    •■ 

E,     do.  "       20    "     1       " 

C,     do.  "       20    "     2      " 

B,  do.  "       20    "     li    " 

In  comparing  these  products  with  those  of  the  same  land  in  1831,  stated 
above,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  corn  formerly  measured  was  dry. 
while  that  of  the  last  measurement  had  yet  to  lose  greatly  by  shrinking. 
As  after  early  gathering,  the  corn  from  the  poorest  land  of  course  will  lose 


t  U.i'AKKoi  9   MAN1  Rl  riCE  s| 

most  by  drying,  and  as  the  ears  on  A  were  generally  rery  defective  and 
badly  filled,  if  the  measurement  had  been  made  in  the  sound  and  well  dried 
grain  of  each  parcel,  the  product  of  A  could  nol   h  done-fourth 

of  that  of  the  surrounding  marled  laud,  and   probably  was  less. 

But  though  these  differences  of  produi  t  present  the  improvement  caused 
by  marling  in  a  striking  point  of  view,  this  close  and  stubborn  soil  at  best 
is  very  unlit  for  the  coin  c  rop;  audits  highest  value  is  found  under  clover, 
and  in  wheat  on  clover,  of  which  some  proofs  will  he  found  in  the  next  ex- 
periment. The  first  crop  of  clover,  however,  after  marling,  has  not 
been  equalled. 

My  subsequent  distant  residence  prevented  my  onsen  ing  this  field  when 
under  any  matured   crop,  until   in  1842,  when    in  wheat.     The   growth  on 
the  unmarled  space  was  certainly  not  more  than  one  fourth  as  mm 
thai  of  the  surrounding  ground. 

Experiment  7. 

Another  piece  of  land  of  twenty-five  acres,  of  soil  and  qualities  similar 
to  the  last  described,  (Exp.  5  and  0\)  was  cleared  in  1818,  and  about  six- 
acres  marled  in  1819,  at  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  bushels.  The  course 
of  cultivation  was  as  follows: 

1820— <  lorn— benefit  from  marl  very  unequal— supposed  to  vary  between 
twenty-five  and  eighty  per  cent. 

1821.  Wheat— the  benefit  derived  greater. 

I  -  22.  At  rest. 

1823.  Ploughed  early  for  corn,  but  not  planted.  The  whole  marled  at 
the  rate  of  six  hundred  bushels  (40  percent.)  again  ploughed  in  August, 
and  sown  in  wheat  in  October.  The  old  marled  space  more  lightly 
covered,  so  as  to  make  the  whole  nearly  equal. 

1824.  The  wheat  much  improved. 
1825  and  1 820,  at  rest. 

1827.  Corn. 

lS-28.  In  wheat,  and  sown  in  clover. 

1829.  The  crop  of  clover  was  heavier  than  any  1  had  ever  seen  in  this 
part  of  the  country,  except  in  some  very  rare  cases  of  rich  natural 
where  gypsum  was  used  and  acted  well.  The  growth  was  thick,  but 
unequal  in  height,  (owing  probably  to  unequal  spreading  of  the  marl,) 
standing  from  fifteen  to  twenty-four  inches  high.  The  fust  growth  was 
mowed  for  hay,  and  the  second  left  to  manure  the  land. 

1830.  The  clover  not  mowed.  Fallowed  in  August,  and  sowed  wheat 
in  October,  after  a  second  ploughing. 

1831.  The  wheat  was  excellent,  almost  heavy  enough  to  be  in  danger  of 
lodging.  I  supposed  the  product  to  be  certainly  twenty  bushels,  perhaps 
twenty-five,  to  the  acre. 

As  it  had  not  been  designed  to  make  any  experiment  on  this  land,  the 
progress  of  improvement  was  not  observed  with  much  care.  Hut  what- 
ever were  the  intermediate  steps,  it  is  certain  that  the  land,  at  first,  was  as 
poor  as  that  forming  the  subjects  of  the  two  preceding  experiments  in  the 
unimproved  state,  (the  measured  products  of  which  have  been  given,)  and 
that  its  last  crop  was  at  least  four  times  as  great  as  could  have  been  ob- 
tained, if  marl  had  not  been  applied.  The  peculiar  fitness  of  this  kind  of 
soil  for  clover  after  marling,  and  the  supposed  cause  of  the  remarkable 
heavy  first  crop  of  clover,  will  require  further  remarks,  and  will  be  again 
referred  to  hereaiter. 


i 


82  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    EFFECTS    OF  CALCAREOUS  .MANURES  ON    ACID  SOILS    REDUCED  BY    CULTIVATION. 

Proposition  5 — continued. 

My  use  of  marl  has  been  more  extensive  on  impoverished  acid 
soils  than  on  all  other  kinds,  and  has  never  failed  to  produce  striking  im- 
provement. Yet  it  has  unfortunately  happened  that  the  two  experiments 
made  on  such  land  with  most  care,  and  on  which  I  relied  mainly  for  evi- 
dence of  the  durable  and  increasing  benefit  from  this  manure,  have  had 
their  effects  almost  destroyed  by  the  applications  having  been  made  too 
heavy.  These  experiments,  like  the  4th  and  6th,  already  reported,  were 
designed  to  remain  without  any  subsequent  alteration,  so  that  the  measure- 
ment of  their  products,  once  in  every  succeeding  rotation,  might  exhibit 
the  progress  of  improvement  under  all  the  different  circumstances.  As 
no  danger  was  then  feared  from  such  a  course,  marl  was  applied  heavily, 
that  no  future  addition  might  be  required  ;  and  for  this  reason,  I  have  to 
report  my  greatest  disappointments  exactly  in  those  cases  where  the  most 
evident  success  and  increasing  benefits  had  been  expected.  However, 
these  failures  will  be  stated  fairly,  and  as  fully  as  the  most  successful  re- 
sults ;  and  they  may  at  least  serve  to  warn  from  the  danger  of  error,  if 
not  to  show  the  greatest  profits  of  judicious  marling. 

It  should  be  observed  that  the  general  rotation  of  crops  pursued  on  the 
farm,  on  all  land  not  recently  cleared,  was  that  of  four  shifts,  (corn,  wheat, 
and  then  the  land  two  years  at  rest  and  not  grazed,)  though  some  excep- 
tions to  this  course  may  be  remarked  in  some  of  the  experiments  to  be  stated. 

Experiment  8. 

Of  a  poor  sandy  acid  loam,  seven  acres  were  marled  at  the  rate  of  only 
ninety  bushels  (37  per  cent.)  to  the  acre  :  laid  on  and  spread  early  in  1819. 

Results,  1819.  In  corn — the  benefit  too  small  to  be  generally  perceptible, 
but  could  be  plainly  distinguished  along  part  of  the  outline,  by  comparing 
with  the  part  not  marled. 

1820.  Wheat — the  effect  something  better — and  continued  to  he  visible 
on  the  weeds  following,  until  the  whole  was  more  heavily  marled  in  1823. 

Experiment  9. 

In  the  same  field,  on  soil  as  poor  and  more  sandy  than  the  last  described, 
four  acres  were  marled  at  one  hundred  and  eighty  bushels,  (37  per  cent.) 
March  1818.  A  part  of  the  same  was  also  covered  heavily  with  rotted  barn- 
yard manure,  which  also  extended  through  similar  land  not  marled.  This 
furnished  for  observation,  land  marled  only — manured  only — marled  and 
manured — and  some  without  either.  The  whole  space,  and  more  adjoin- 
ing, had  been  heavily  manured  five  or  six  years  before  by  summer  cow- 
pens,  and  stable  litter— of  which  no  appearance  remained  after  two  years. 

Results,  1819.  In  corn.  The  improvement  from  marl  very  evident — but 
not  to  be  distinguished  on  the  part  covered  also  by  manure,  the  effect  of 
the  latter  so  far  exceeding  that  of  the  marl  as  to  conceal  it. 

1820.     In  wheat.     In  1821  and  1822,  at  rest. 

1823.     In  corn— 5;  by  3$  feet.   The  following  measurements  were  made 


• 


I  ALCAREOOS  MAM  RES     PR  \<   I  !'  E 


33 


lining  spaces  on  October  I  Oth.    The  attaj f  the  ground  did  not 

til ii tit  oi  larger  pieces,  equal  in  all  respects,  being  measured,  as  no  com- 
parlson  ol  products  had  been  contemplated  at  first,  otherwise  than  by 
the  eye. 

From  the  part  not  marled,    ill  corn-hills  made  75  quarts— 

or  per  acre, 

Marled  only,  III 100 

Manured  only,   190  -       -        -        -        105 

Marled  and  manured,  490        -        -        -        130 

The  growth  on  the  part  both  mailed  and  manured  was  evidently  inferior 
to  that  of  1819.  This  was  to  be  expected,  as  the  small  quantity  of  cal- 
careous earth  was  not  enough  to  fix  half  so  much  putrescent  manure;  and, 
of  course,  the  excess  was  as  liable  to  waste  as  if  no  marl  had  been  used. 


Bush. 

Quarts 

13 

26 

18 

12 

15 

5 

20 

20 

Experiment  It). 

Twenty  acres  of  sandy  loam,  on  a  sandy  subsoil,  covered  in  1819  with 
marl  of  about  30  per  cent  average  proportion  of  calcareous  earth,  and  the 
balance  silicions  sand     al   300  bushels  to  the  acre.     This  land  had  b 
cleared,  and  much  exhausted  by  cultivation ;  since  1814  not  grazed, 

and  had  been  in  corn  only  once  in  lour  years;  ami.  as  it  was  not  worth 
SOWing  in  wheat,  had  three  years  in  each  rotation  to  rest  and  improve  by 
receiving  all  its  scanty  growth  of  weeds.  The  same  course  has  been  con- 
tinued from  1819  to  1832,  except  that  wheat  has  regularly  fallowed  the  crops 
of  corn,  leaving  two  yean  of  rest  in  four.  This  soil  was  lighter  than  the 
subject  ni  any  preceding  experiment,  except  the  9th.  On  a  high  level 
part,  surrounded  by  land  apparently  equal,  a  square  of  about  an  acre  (A) 
was  slaked  nil.  and  left  without  marl— which  that  year's  work  brought 
to  two  sides  of  the  square  (C,  D  and  K.) 


Nj  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE 

Ilexults.  1820.  In  coin.  October  13th,  three  half  acres  of  mailed  land 
were  measured,  and  as  many  on  that  not  marled,  and  close  adjoining,  and 
produced  as  follows : 

Nottnarled.  Marled. 

Bush    Pecks.  Bush.  Pocks. 

Half  acre  in  A,     7         1  adjoining  in  C,         12       3 

The  same  in  A,     7         1  "     D,         13       33 

Half  acre  in  B,     7         2$  "         "     E,         10       04 

The  average  increase  being  12A  bushels  of  grain  to  the  acre,  nearly  100 
per  cent,  as  measured,  and  more  than  1U0  if  the  defective  filling,  and  less 
matured  state  of  the  corn  not  marled,  be  considered.  The  whole  would 
have  lost  more  by  shrinkage  than  is  usual  from  equal  products. 

1821.  The  whole  in  wheat;  much  hurt  by  the  wetness  of  the  season. 
The  marled  part  more  than  twice  as  good  as  that  left  out. 

1822  and  1823.  At  rest.  A  good  cover  of  carrot  weeds  and  other  kinds 
had  succeeded  the  former  growth  of  poverty  grass  and  sorrel,  and  every 
appearance  promised  additional  increase  to  the  next  cultivated  crop.  No- 
vember, 1S23,  when  the  next  ploughing  was  commenced,  the  soil  was  found 
to  be  evidently  deeper,  of  a  darker  color  and  firmer,  yet  more  friable. 
The  two-horse  ploughs  with  dilficulty  (increased  by  the  cover  of  weeds,) 
could  cut  the  required  depth  of  five  inches,  and  the  slice  crumbled  as  it 
fell  from  the  mould-board.  But  as  the  furrows  passed  into  the  part  not 
marled,  an  immediate  change  was  seen,  and  even  felt  by  the  ploughman, 
as  the  cutting  was  so  much  more  easy,  that  care  was  necessary  to  pre- 
vent the  plough  running  too  deep—  and  the  slices  turned  over  in  flakes, 
smooth  and  sleek  from  the  mould  board,  like  land  too  wet  for  ploughing, 
which  however  was  not  the  case.  The  marling  of  the  field  was  completed 
at  the  same  rate,  (800  bushels,)  which  closed  a  third  side  (B)  of  the  marked 
square.     The  fourth  side  was  my  neighbor's  field. 

1 824.  In  com.  The  newly  marled  (on  B)  showed  as  early  and  as  great  bene- 
fit as  was  found  in  1820  on  C  and  D— but  yet  was  very  inferior  to  the  old, 
until  the  latter  was  10  or  12  inches  high,  when  it  began  to  give  the  first 
known  evidence  of  the  very  injurious  effects  of  using  this  manure  too 
heavily.  The  disease  thus  produced  became  worse  and  worse,  until  many 
of  the  plants  had  been  killed,  and  still  more  were  so  stunted  as  to  leave  no 
hope  of  their  being  otherwise  than  barren.  The  effects  will  be  known 
from  the  measurements  which  were  made  as  nearly  as  could  be  on  the 
same  ground  as  the  corresponding  marks  in  1S20,  and  will  be  exhibited  in 
the  table,  together  with  the  products  of  the  succeeding  rotations.  Besides  the 
general  injury  suffered  here  in  1824,  there  were  one  hundred  and  three 
corn  hills  in  one  of  the  measured  quarter  acres  (in  C,)  or  more  than  one- 
sixth,  entirely  barren,  and  eighty-nine  corn,  hills  in  another  quarter  acre 
(D.)  In  counting  these,  none  of  the  missing  hills  were  included,  as  these 
plants  might  have  perished  from  other  causes.  This  unlooked  for  disaster 
diminished  the  previous  increase  gained  by  marling,  by  nearly  one-half; 
and  the  damage  has  since  been  still  greater,  at  each  successive  return  of 
cultivation  until  some  years  after  1832. 

Just  before  planting  the  crops  of  1832,  straw  and  chaff  very  imperfectly 
rotted  by  exposure,  and  which  contained  no  admixture  of  animal  manure, 
were  applied  at  the  rate  of  800  bushels  the  acre  to  half  the  square  without 
marl  (A,  1)  and  to  the  adjacent  parts  of  the  marled  land.  The  vege- 
table manure  showed  but  slight  benefit,  until  after  all  the  worst  effects  of 
excessive  marling  had  been  produced;  and  the  later  operation  of  the  ma- 
nure served  barely  to  prevent  a  still  farther  diminution  being  exhibited  by 
the  land  injured  by  marl. 


C  vl  C  \i:i'."i  -   M  WTKI's     PRAC  Hi  r. 


85 


TRODLCT  IN  SHELLED  CORN  1't.l. 

3d  course          -till  course 

is: 

0.              1824. 

1S28.               1832. 

Oct. 

13.      Oct.»! 

i  :.      Oi  '..!..  i  I" 

Hush 

pk.  Hush,  pecks, 

,  h.  peeks. 

" 

2        1C         1 

11        i:A 

Hi         3 

16 

1          g 

19         2        not  measured 

1!) 

IS                       is 

^-7 

:;;,     2i> 

1!)                         Ill          } 

(  SO 

l    not  measured 

ired.  not  measured 

A       \..t  marled 

\  I     \lt.r  manuring, 

B       .Not  marled  until 


],tj    Ma 

r,  t        Willi  iiiuir, 


1819— manured 
Stein  1832. 


The  cr<^>s  of  wheat  were  throughout  less  injured  by  the  excess  of  mail 
than  the  corn. 

Forthecropof  1828,  ploughed  with  thn-c  mules  to  each  ploo 
■  i  .  to  seven  inches  deep — seldom  turning  up  any  subsoil,  (which  was  for- 
merly within  three  inches  of  the  surface,)  and  the  soil  appearing  still  darker 
and  richer  than  when  preparing  for  the  crops  of  I --.!!.     The  ploughing 
of  the  Bquare  not  marled  (A)  no  wher  t  that  depth 

must  have  injured  the  land,  as  1  can  impute  to  no  other  cause  the  remarka- 
ble diminution  of  product,  through  lour  courses  of  the  mild  four-shift  rota- 
tion. It  was  evident  that  a  still  greater  depth  of  furrow  was  not  hurt! 
the  marled  land.  A  strip  across  the  field,  in  another  place,  was  in  1828 
ploughed  eight  inches  deep  for  experiment,  by  the  side  of  another  of  four 
inches,  and  the  corn  on  the  deepest  ploughing  was  the  best  Another  strip 
was  trench-ploughed  twelve  inr lies  deep,  without  showing  any  perceptible 
difference,  either  ol  product  or  in  lh<  •nets  of  damage  from  the  e 
of  marl. 

luare  left  without  marl  was  the  land   previously  refen 

liminished  product  through  three surci  -.1  il . 

rotation  recommended  by  the  author  ol  'Arator'as  enriching.  Since, 
another  crop  has  been  made  and  measured,  and  found  to  be  siiil  sntollet 
than  any  previous.     To  whatever  cause  Ll'iis  contiitued  falling  off,  Ibi    It 

.maybe  attributed,  it   is  at  least  a  i mtradiction  I"  il. 

lot  trine  of  vegetable  mattci    en  ing  alone  to  make  poor  land  i  ich 

Much  trouble  has  been  ■..  to  this  experirm  nl 

much  loss  ol  product  submitted  to,  since  its  pui 

pose  ol  know  ing  1 1  i  and  extent  i  I 

of  marl.     But  anothei   portion  of  the  field, led  as  heavil)  in    1824 

1  damage  w . 
lifting  the  cotn  •  rop  ol    ' 
with  gypseous  earth,™  jrreeii  iand  earth,  al 

I  well,  and  which  was  let)  .  ■  il  on  Hie  land    The  next  growth 

.I  on  this  rat t  ol  it..'  field 

..I',  amount  to  full  twenl 
An  i  rotation  and  management  oi  thi     lii    I 

gular  oi   in.  i  .  .  and  also,  ni  ing 

somanj  yearn  marl  had  necessarilj  i.. 

led  I  .  u  nil.  in  i  marl.     T?herefor< 

The 
unmarTed  part,  even  with  its  slight  ..  sur- 

rounding ground,  and  half  the  | 

cent   manure   in    1832,    ...     itated    a  rj    Little    Impri 

since  I  - 

II 


86 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 


Experiment  11. 


The  ground  on  which  this  experiment  was  made  was  in  the  midst  of 
nineteen  or  twenty  acres  of  soil  apparently  similar  in  all  respects— level, 
gray  sandy  loam,  cleared  about  thirty  years  before,  and  reduced  as  low  by 
cultivation  as  such  soil  could  well  be.  The  land  that  was  marled  and  mea- 
sured was  about  two  hundred  yards  distant  from  experiment  2,  and  both 
places  are  supposed  to  have  been  originally  similar  in  all  respects.  This 
land  had  not  been  cultivated  since  1815,  when  it  was  in  corn—  but  had  been 
once  ploughed  since,  in  November,  1817,  which  had  prevented  broom  grass 
from  taking  possession.  The  ploughing  then  was  four  inches  deep,  and 
in  five  and  a  half  feet  beds,  as  recommended  in  '  Arator.'  The  growth  in 
the  year  1820  presented  little  except  poverty  grass,  {Aristida  gracilis,) 
running  blackberry  briers,  and  sorrel—  and  the  land  seemed  very  little  if  at 
all  improved  by  its  five  successive  years  of  rest.  A  small  part  of  this  land 
was  covered  with  calcareous  sand,  (20  per  cent.,)  quantity  not  observed 
particularly,  but  probably  about  600  bushels. 


3l} 

if  >  verj 
'■iS 


Results.  1821.  Ploughed  level,  and  planted  in  corn— distance  5£  by  3J 
feet.  The  measurement  of  spaces  nearly  adjoining,  made  in  October,  was 
as  follows : 
23  by  25  corn  hills,  not  marled,  (in  A)  made  2^  bushels,  or ' 

per  acre,  -         -    ■     -         -         -         -         8|  J-  very  nearly. 

23  by  25  corn  hills,  marled,  (on  the  side  B)    5|  22| 

1822.  At  rest.  Marled  the  whole,  except  a  marked  square  of  fifty  yards, 
containing  the  space  measured  the  preceding  year.  Marl  45  per  cent,  and 
finely  divided — 350  bushels  to  the  acre — from  the  same  bed  as  that  used 
for  experiment  4.  In  August,  ploughed  the  land,  and  sowed  wheat  early 
in  October. 

1823.  Much  injury  sustained  by  the  wheat  from  Hessian  fly,  and  the 
growth  was  not  only  mean,  but  very  irregular;  but  it  was  supposed  that 
the  first  marled  place  (on  the  side  B)  was  from  50  to  100  per  cent,  better 
than  the  last  marled,  and  the  last  superior  to  the  included  square  not  marl- 
ed, (A)  in  as  great  a  proportion. 

1824.  Again  in  corn.  The  effects  of  disease  from  marling  were  as  in- 
jurious here,  both  on  the  new  and  old  part,  as  those  described  in  experi- 
ment 10.  No  measurement  of  products  made,  owing  to  my  being  from 
home  when  the  corn  was  cut  down  for  sowing  wheat. 

1825.  The  injury  from  disease  less  on  the  wheat  than  on  the  corn  of 
the  last  year  on  the  latest  marling,  and  none  perceptible  on  the  oldest  appli- 
cation. This  scourging  rotation  of  three  grain  crops  in  four  years  was 
particularly  improper  on  marled  land,  and  the  more  so  on  account  of  its 
poverty. 

1826.  White  clover  had  been  sown  thickly  over  forty-five  acres,  in- 
cluding this  part,  on  the  wheat,  in  January,  1825.     In  the  spring  of  1826, 


CALCAKKOl JS  MANIKIN     PRACTICE 


87 


it  formed  a  beautiful  green  though  low  cover  to  even  the  poorest  of  the 
marled  land.     Marked  spots,  which  were  so  disea  i  marling  as 

not  to  produce  a  grain  ofoprnor  wheat,  produced  clover  at  le 
as  other  places  not  injured  by  that  cause.  The  square,  which  had 
sown  in  the  same  manner,  and  on  which  the  plants  came  up  well,  had 
no  clover  remaining  by  April,  I826\except  on  a  few  small  spots,  all  of  which 
together  would  not  have  made  three  feet  square.  The  piece  not  marled, 
white  with  poverty  grass, might  be  seen,  and  its  outlines  traced,  at  some 
distance,  by  its  strong  contrast  with  the  surrounding  dai  k  weeds  in  winter, 
or  the  verdant  turf  of  white  clover  the  spring  before. 

1827.  Still  at  rest.     No  grazing  allowed  on  the  white  clover. 

1828.  In  corn— the  land  broken  in  January,  five  inches  deep.     October 
Nth,  made  the  following  measurements: 

In  the  square  not  marled,  (A)  105  by  1041  feet  (thirty-six  square  yards 
more  than  a  quarter  of  an  acre.)  made  one  barrel  of  ears- 
Bushels,     pecks. 
Or  of  grain  to  the  acre,        9  1  ij 

The  same  in  1821,  8  I j 


Gain.   1 


"1 


Old  marling  (in  B)—  105  by  104$  feet— 24.  barrels, 

The  same  in  1821, 


22 
22 


»i 


Gain,  1  £ 

New  marling,   105  by  104A  feet,  on  the  side  that  seemed  to  be  the  most 
diseased,  (D)  l£  barrels — or  nearly  12  bushels  to  the  acre. 

1832.  Again  in  corn.  Since  182G,  the  mild  four-shift  rotation  had  been 
regularly  adhered  to.  Ploughed  early  in  winter  live  inches  deep,  and  again 
with  two-horse  ploughs  just  before  planting,  and  after  manuring  the  land 
above  the  dotted  line  O  x.  The  manure  was  from  the  stable  yard,  the 
table  part  of  it  composed  of  straw,  corn-stalks,  corn-cobs,  and  leaves 
raked  from  wood-land,  had  been  heaped  in  a  wet  state  a  short  time  before, 
and  was  still  hot  from  its  fermentation  when  carrying  to  the  field.  It  was 
then  about  half  rotted.  The  rate  at  which  it  was  applied  was  about  B07 
heaped  bushels  to  the  acre,  which  was  too  heavy  for  the  best  net  profit. 
The  corn  on  the  oldest  marling  (B)  showed  scarcely  a  trace  of  remaining 
damage,  while  that  on  D  2  (not  manured)  was  again  much  injured.  On  the 
manured  part,  D  l.and  C,  the  symptoms  of  disease  began  also  to  show 
early— but  were  so  soon  checked  by  the  operation  of  the  putrescent  ma- 
nure, that  very  little  (if  any)  loss  could  have  been  sustained  from  that  cause 
The  following  table  exhibits  all  the  measured  products  for  comparison  : 


DESCRIPTION 

PRODUCT  IN   GRAIN,  TF.H   ACRE. 

MARKS 

1st  course|      2d  course      |3d  course|4lh  course 

1821.               1824.               1828.         1832. 

Oct.  —  >                              Oct.  It.     Oct.  20, 

Bush  pk.  None  measured,  Ilu-di.  pk  Bu?h.  pk. 

A 

C  Not  marled,                                ) 
i  Not  marled  &  manured  in  1*.:2  S 

Ij  but  the  product      9       Ij      0     2j  ) 

A    1 

of  B  much  re  ;the  samel  23     3    J 

c 

Marled  in  1822,  and  manured  in 

duccd  by  I 

of  marl,  and  1),                 '  31     11 

1832. 

B 

Marled  in  1321  (lightly) 

22       OJ  (cC  equally  in     11       1      25 

S.j 

Marled  in  1822  (more  heavilyl 

Mured   Irom   th<     u           |  17     3    ) 
(same  cause.        (he  same!  31     3    j 

The  same — and  manured  in  1882. 

CA1 

Tht  ,  ted  as 

usual  from  the  measurement  of  the  corn  in  ears,  (which  estimated  quanti- 
ties are  those  in  the  table.)  but  they  were  also  shelled  i>n  the  day  when 
gathered,  and  the  grain  then  measured,  and  a_-ain  some  months  after,  when 
:t  had  become  thoroughly  dry.  Care  was  taken  that  there  should  be  no 
waste  of  the  corn,  or  other  cause  of  inaccuracy.  The  result  showed  nearly 
double  the  loss  from  shrinking  in  the  corn  not  marled,  and  of  course  a  pro- 
portional greater  comparative  increase  of  product  in  that  mailed,  besides  the 
increase  which  appears  from  the  earl}*  measurement  exhibited  in  the  table. 
The  grain  of  A.  not  marled,  when  first  shelled,  measured  a  very  little  more 
than  the  quantity  fixed  by  estimate — made  as  usual  by  measurement  of 
the  ears,  and  lost  by  shrinking  SO  per  cent.  The  marled  grain,  from  B. 
measured  at  first  above  4  per  cent,  more  t;.an  the  estimate,  and  after 
shrinking,  fell  below  it  so  much  as  to  show  the  loss  to  be  i6per  cent. 
The  loss  from  shrinking  in  this  case  was  greater  than  usual  in  both, 
from  the  poverty  and  consequent  backwardness  of  the  part  not  marled, 
and  the  uncommonly  large  proportion  of  replanted  and  of  course  late 
com  on  the  whole. 

The  two  last  experiments,  as  well  as  the  4th,  were  especially  designed  to 
test  the  amount  of  increased  product  to  be  obtained  from  marling,  and  to 
show  the  regular  addition  to  the  first  increase,  which  the  theory  promised 
at  each  renewal  of  tillage.  As  to  the  main  objects,  all  the  three  experi- 
ments have  proved  failures — and  from  the  same  error,  that  of  marling  too 
heavily.    Although  for  this  reason,  theresuJt;  so  much  of  the  in- 

jurious effects,  still,  taken  altogether,  the  experiments  prove,  clearly,  not 
only  the  great  immediate  benefit  of  applying  marl,  but  also  its  continued 
and  increasing  good  effects  when  applied  in  proper  quantities. 

Experiment  1.' 

On  9  acres  of  sandy  loam,  marled  in  1S19  at  400  bushels,  (25  per  cent.) 
nearly  an  acre  was  manured  during  the  same  summer,  by  penning  cattle. 
With  the  expectation  of  preserving  the  manure,  double  the  quantity  of 
marl,  or  800  bushels  in  all,  was  laid  on  that  part-  The  field  in  corn  in 
1820— in  wheat.  Iv2l—  and  at  rest  1822  and   1823. 

Ben/O*,  1824.  In  corn,  the  second  rotation  after  marling.  The  effects 
i  >f  the  dung  have  not  much  diminished,  and  that  part  shows  no  damage  from 
the  quantity  of  marl,  though  the  surrounding  corn,  marled  only  "half  as 
thickly,  -rave  signs  of  general,  though  very  slight  injury  from  that  cause. 

Experiment  1 3. 

Nearly  two  acres  of  loamy  sand  were  covered  with  barn-yard  manure, 
and  marl.  (45  per  cent..)  at  the  same  time,  in  the  spring  of  I S22,  and  the  field 
put  in  corn  the  same  year,  followed  by  wheat.  The  quantity  of  marl  not  re- 
membered—but  it  must  have  been  heavy  (say  not  less  than  six  hundred 
bushels  to  the  acre)  as  it  was  put  on  to  fix  and  retain  the  manure,  and  1 
had  then  no  fear  of  damage  from  heavy  dressings. 

Result,  L825.  Again  in  corn— and  except  on  a  small  spot  of  sand  almost 
pure,  (nearly  a  "  blowing  sand."  or  liable  to  be  drifted  by  high  winds  in  dry 
weather,)  no  signs  of  disease  from  over-marlins  were  seen,  then  or  after- 
wards. ' 


(  am  w;i  01      \i  INI  I-       PI     CTII 
CHAPTER  v. 

i,ll     i  I  01       m  v  Mil:  ii       MAH1  Rl        »1    "  FRE1    LI 

Proposition  5— cent 

The  soil  known  in  this  part  of  the  country  by  tin-  name  of  "freeHght 
land"  has  so  peculiar  a  character  that  it  deserves  a  particular  notice.    It 
a  to  the  slopes  and  undulating  lands,  between  the  :  and 

the  water  courses,  but  hasnothii  of  medium 

fertility  sometimes  possess.  In  its  wood-land  state  it  would  be  called  rich. 
and  may  remain  productive  for  a  few  crops  after  being  cleared  ;  but  it  is  ra- 
pidly exhausted,  and,  when  poor,  seems  as  unimprovable  by  \< 
mires  as  the  poorest  ridge  lands.  In  its  virgin  state,  this  sod  might  be  sup- 
posed to  deserve  the  name  of  neutral;  but  its  productive  power  is  so  Meeting, 
and  acid  growths  and  qualities  so  surely  follow  its  exhaustion,  that  it  must 
be  inferred  that  it  is  truly  art  acid  soil. 

Experiment  14. 

The  subject  of  this  experiment  presents  soil  of  this  kind  with  its  pecu- 
liar characters  unusually  well  marked.  It  is  a  loamy  sandy  soil,  (the  sand 
coarse,)  on  a  similar  sub-soil  of  considerable  depth.  The  surface  waving, 
almost  hilly  in  some  parts.  The  original  growth  principally  red-oak, 
hickory,  and  dogwood,  not  many  pines,  and  very  little  whortleberry.  Cut 
down  in  1816  and  put  in  corn  the  next  year.  The  crop  was  supposed  to 
be  twerity-five  bushels  to  the  acre.  Wheat  succeeded,  and  was  still  a  bet- 
ter crop  for  so  sandy  a  soil ;  making  twelve  to  fifteen  bushels,  as  it  appear- 
ed standing.  After  18  months  of  rest,  and  not  grazed,  the  next  corn  crop, 
of  18.20,  was  evidently  and  considerably  inferior  to  the  first;  and  the  wheat 
of  1821  (which  however  was  a  very  bad  crop,  from  too  wet  a  season)  could 
not  have  been  more  than  five  bushels  to  the  acre.  In  January,  1820,  a 
piece  of  IA  acres  was  limed,  at  100  bushels  the  acre.  The  lime,  being 
caught  by  rain  before  it  was  spread,  finned  small  lumps  of  mortar  on  the 
land,  and  produced  BO  benefit  on  the  corn  of  that  year,  but  could  be  seen 
slightly  in  the  wheat  of  1821.  The  land  again  at  rest  in  1822  and  ^3, 
when  it  was  marled,  at  000  bushels,  (-'w  per  cent.,)  without  omitting  the 
limed  piece— anil  all  sowed  in  wheat  that  fall.  In  1824,  the  wheat  was 
found  to  be  improved  by  the  marl,  but  neither  that,  nor  the  next  crop  of  1828, 
was  equal  to  its  earliest  product  of  wheat.  The  limed  part  showed  injury 
in  1824,  from  the  quantity  of  manure,  but  none  since.  The  held  was  now 
under  the  regular  four-shift  rotation,  and  continued  to  recover;  but  did 
not  surpass  its  first  crop  until  1831,  when  it  brought  rather  more  than 
thirty  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre  (estimated  by  the  eye.)-  being  five  or  six 
bushels  more  than  its  supposed  first  crop. 

Experirm  nt  1 5. 

Adjoining  this  piece,  six  acres  of  similar  soil  were  grubbed  and  belted  in 
August,  182G— marl  at  bOO  to  700  bushels  (37  per  cent)  spread  just  before. 
But  few  of  the  trees  died  until  the  summer  of  1827.  In  1828,  planted  in  corn; 
the  crop  did  not  appear  heavier  than  would  have  been  expected  if  no  marl 
had  been  applied— but  no  part  had  been  left  without,  lor  comparison. 
1829,  wheat.  1830,  at  rest.  1831,  in  corn,  and  the  product  supposed  to 
be  near  or  quite  thirty-five  bushels,  or  an  increase  of  thirty-five  or  forty 


90  CALCAREOUS  MANURE8— PRACTICE 

per  cent,  on  the  first  crop.  No  measurement  was  made — t>ut  the  product 
was  estimated  by  comparison  with  an  adjacent  piece,  which  measured 
thirty-one  bushels,  and  which  seemed  to  be  inferior  to  this  piece. 

The  operation  of  marl  on  this  kind  of  soil  seems  to  add  to  the  previous 
product  very  slowly,  compared  with  other  soils;  but  it  is  not  the  less 
effectual  and  profitable  in  fixing  and  retaining  the  vegetable  matter  accu- 
mulated by  nature,  which  otherwise  would  be  quickly  dissipated  by  cul- 
tivation, and  lost  for  ever. 

The  remarkable  sandy  and  open  texture  of  the  soil  on  which  the  last  two 
experiments  were  tried,  will  be  evident  from  the  following  statement  of  the 
quantity  and  coarseness  of  the  silicious  sand  contained. 
1 000  grains  of  this  soil,  taken  in  1 826  from  the  part  that  had  been  both 

limed  and  marled,  was  found  to  consist  of 
811  of  silicious  sand  moderately  coarse,  mixed   with  a   few  grains  of 

coarse  shelly  matter  (the  remains  of  the  marl.) 
158  finely  divided  earthy  matter,  part  silicious,  as  well  as  aluminous,  &c. 
31  loss. 

At  the  same  time,  from  the  edge  of  the  adjoining  wood-land  which  formed 
the  next  described  experiment,  15,  and  which  had  not  then  been  marled,  a 
specimen  of  soil  was  taken  from  between  the  depths  of  one  and  three  inches 
—  and  found  to  consist  of  the  following  proportions.  This  spot  was  believed 
to  be  rather  lighter  than  the  other  in  its  natural  state. 
865  grains  of  silicious  sand,  principally  coarse, 
107  finely  divided  earthy  matter  (partly  silicious.)  &£. 

28  loss. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

EFFECTS    OF    CALCAREOUS    MANURES    OX    EXHACSTED    ACID    SOILS,    UNDER    THEIR 
SECOND    GROWTH    OF    TREES. 

Proposition  5 — continued. 

Not  having  owned  much  land  under  a  second  growth  of  pines,  I  can  only 
refer  to  two  experiments  of  this  kind.  The  improvement  in  both  these 
cases  has  been  so  remarkable,  as  to  induce  the  belief  that  the  "  old  fields"  to 
be  found  on  every  farm,  which  have  been  exhausted  and  turned  out  of 
cultivation  thirty  or  forty  years,  offer  the  most  profitable  subjects  for  the 
application  of  calcareous  manures. 

Experiment  16. 

May  1826.  Marled  about  eight  acres  of  land  under  its  second  growth, 
by  opening  paths  for  the  carts  ten  yards  apart.  Marl  40  per  cent. ;  put  500 
to  600  bushels  to  the  acre— and  spread  in  the  course  of  the  summer.  In 
August,  belted  slightly  all  the  pines  that  were  as  much  as  eight  inches 
through,  and  cut  down  or  grubbed  the  smaller  growth,  of  which  there  was 
very  little.  The  pines  (which  were  the  only  trees)  stood  thick,  and  were 
mostly  from  eight  to  twelve  inches  in  diameter— eighteen  inches  where 
standing  thin.  The  land  joined  experiment  15  on  one  side;  but  this  is 
level,  and  on  the  other  side  joins  ridge  woodland,  which  soon  becomes  like 
soil  of  experiment  1.  This  piece,  in  its  virgin  state,  was  probably  of  a 
nature  between  those  two  soils — but  less  like  the  ridge  soil  than  the  "  free 
light  land."     No  information  has  been  obtained  as  to  the  state  of  this  land 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES- PRACTICE.  91 

*hen  its  cultivation  was  formerly  abandoned.  The  soil,  (that  is,  the  depth 
which  lias  sine.'  been  turned  by  the  plough,) "a  whitish  loamy  sand,  on  a 
subsoil  of  the  same;  In  fact,  all  was  subsoil  before  the  ploughing,  except 
half  an  Inch  Of  three  quarters,  on  the  top,  which  was  principally  composed 
of  rotted  pine  leaves.  Above  this  thin  layer  were  the  later  dropped  and 
unrotted  leaves,  lying  loosely  several  inches  thick. 

The  pines  showed  no  symptoms  of  being  killed,  until  the  autumn  of  1827, 
when  their  leaves  began  to  have  a  tinge  of  yellow.  To  suit  the  cultivation 
with  the  surrounding  laud,  this  piece  was  laid  down  in  wheat  for  its  first 
crop,  in  October,  R27.  For  this  purpose,  the  few  logs,  the  boughs,  and 
grubbed  bushes  were  heaped,  but  not  burnt— the  seed  then  sowed  on  the  coat 
of  pine  leaves,  and  ploughed  in  by  two-horse  ploughs,  in  as  slovenly  a 
manner  as  may  be  supposed  from  the  condition  of  the  land  ;  and  a  wooden- 
tooth  harrow  then  passed  over,  to  pull  down  the  heaps  of  leaves,  and 
roughest  furrows. 

Results.  The  wheat  was  thin,  but  otherwise  looked  well  while  young. 
The  surface  was  very  soon  again  covered  by  the  leaves  dropping  from  the  then 
dying  trees.  <>n  April  2d,  1828,  most  of  the  trees  were  nearly  dead,  though 
but  few  of  them  entirely.  The  wheat  was  then  taller  than  any  in  my  crop 
—  and  when  ripe,  was  a  surprising  growth  for  such  land,  and  such  imper- 
fect tillage. 

1S29  and  1830.  At  rest.  Late  in  the  spring  of  1830  an  accidental  fire 
passed  over  the  land— but  the  then  growing  vegetation  prevented  all  of  the 
older  cover  being  burnt,  though  some  was  destroyed  every  where. 

1831.  In  corn.  The  growth  excited  the  admiration  of  all  who  saw  it, 
and  no  one  estimated  the  product  so  low  as  it  actually  proved  to  be.  A 
square  of  four  (two-pole)  chains,  or  four-tenths  of  an  acre,  measured  on 
November  25th,  yielded  at  the  rate  of  thirty-one  and  three-eighths  bushels 
1 1  grain  to  the  acre. 

Experiment   17. 

In  a  field  of  acid  sandy  loam,  long  under  the  usual  cultivation,  a  piece 
of  five  or  six  acres  was  covered  by  a  second  growth  of  pines  thirty-nine 
years  old,  as  supposed  from  that  number  of  rings  being  counted  on  some  of 
the  stumps.  The  largest  trees  were  eighteen  or  twenty  inches  through. 
This  ground  was  altogether  on  the  side  of  a  slope,  steep  enough  to  lose  soil 
by  washing,  and  more  than  one  old  shallow  gully  remained  to  confirm  the 
belief  of  the  injury  that  had  been  formerly  sustained  from  that  cause. 
These  circumstances,  added  to  all  the  surrounding  land  having  been  conti- 
nued under  cultivation,  made  it  evident  that  this  piece  had  been  turned  out 
of  cultivation  because  greatly  injured  by  tillage.  It  was  again  cut  down  in 
the  winter  of  182  1  -5.  Many  of  the  trees  furnished  fence-rails  and  fuel,  and 
the  remaining  bodies  were  heaped  and  burnt  some  months  after,  as  well  as 
the  large  brush.  In  August  it  was  marled,  supposed  at  600  bushels,  (37  pet- 
cent.,)  twice  coultered  in  August  and  September,  and  sowed  in  wheat—  the 
seed  covered  by  trowel  ploughs.  The  leaves  and  much  of  the  smaller 
brush  left  on  the  ground,  made  the  ploughing  troublesome  and  imperfect. 
The  crop  (1826)  was  remarkably  good— and  still  better  were  the  crops  of 
corn  and  wheat  in  the  ensuing  rotation,  after  two  yens  of  rest.  <  >n  the 
last  crop  of  wheat  (1830)  clover  was  sown— and  mowed  for  hay  in  1831. 
The  growth  stood  about  eighteen  inches  high,  and  never  have  I  seen  so 
heavy  a  crop  on  sandy  and  acid  soil,  even  from  the  heaviest  dunging,  the 
utmost  care,  and  the  most  favorable  season.  The  clover  grew  well  in  the 
bottoms  of  the  old  gullies,  which  were  still  plainly  to  be  seen,  and  which  no 


92  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE. 

means  had  been  used  to  improve,  except  such  as  all  the  land  had  re© 
Within  two  feet  of  the  surface  the  subsoil  of  this  land  is  of  red  clay,  which 
probably  helped  its  growth  of  clover. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

EFFECTS    OF    CALCARE0U8    .MANURE.-  ALONE,  OR    WITH  GYPSUM,  ON    NEITRAL    SOILS. 

Proposition  5 —  continued. 

Reason  would  teach  that  applications  of  calcareous  earth  alone  to  calca- 
reous soils  are  so  manifestly  useless,  that  no  more  than  two  experiments  of 
that  kind  have  been  made  by  me,  neither  of  which  had  any  improving 
effect  that  could  be  noticed,  in  the  twelve  ensuing  years  during  which  the 
experiments  were  observed. 

When  calcareous  manures  have  been  applied  to  neutral  soils,  whether 
new  or  worn,  no  perceptible  and  manifest  benefit  has  been  obtained  on  the 
first  crop.  The  subsequent  improvement  has  gradually  increased,  as  would 
be  expected  from  the  power  of  fixing  manures  ascribed  to  calcareous 
earth.  But  however  satisfactory  these  general  results  were  to  myself,  they 
are  not  such  as  could  be  reported  in  detail,  with  any  advantage  to  other 
persons.  It  is  sufficiently  difficult  to  make  fair  and  accurate  experiments 
where  early  and  remarkable  results  are  expected.  But  no  cultivator  of  a 
farm  can  bestow  enough  care,  and  patient  observation,  to  obtain  true  results 
from  experiments  that  scarcely  will  show  their  first  feeble  effects  in  several 
years  after  the  commencement.  On  a  mere  experimental  farm,  such  things 
maybe  possible;  but  not  where  the  main  object  of  the  fanner  is  profit 
from  his  general  and  varied  operations.  The  effects  of  changes  of  season, 
of  crops,  of  the  mode  of  tillage— the  auxiliary  effects  of  other  manures,  and 
many  other  circumstances— would  serve  to  defeat  any  observations  of  the 
progress  of  a  slow  improvement,  though  the  ultimate  result  of  the  general 
practice  might  be  abundantly  evident. 

Another  cause  for  being  unable  to  state  with  any  precision  the  practical 
benefit  of  marling  neutral  soils,  arises  from  the  circumstance  that  nearly  all 
the  calcareous  manure  thus  applied  by  me  has  been  accompanied  by  a  natu  ' 
ral  admixture  of  gypsum :  and  though  I  feel  confident  in  ascribing  some  effe<  i 
to  one,  and  some  to  the  oilier  of  these  two  kinds  of  manure,  yet  this  divi- 
sion of  operation  must  rest  merely  on  opinion,  and  cannot  be  receivi  I  a 
certain  by  any  other  than  him  who  makes  and  carefully  observes  the  ex 
pcriments.  Some  of  these  applications  will  be  described,  that  other  per- 
sons may  draw  their  own  conclusions  hum  them. 

The  cause  of  these  manures  being  applied  in  conjunction  was  this  I 
singular  bed  of  marl  lying  under  Coggins  Point,  and  the  only  one  within 
a  convenient  distance  to  most  of  the  neutral  soil  of  that  farm,  contains  a 
very  small  proportion  (perhaps  about  one  per  cent.)  of  gypsum,  .•-(alien  .I 
irregularly  through  the  mass,  seldom  visible,  though  sometimes  and  very 
rarely  to  be  met  with  in  small  crystals.  The  calcareous  ingredient  "ii  ,i 
general  average,  carefully  made,  was  fouflB  to  It  o-j  per  cent.  Ii  this 
manure  had  been  used  befoi  red,  all   it 

effects  would  have  been  ascribed  to  calcareous  earth  alone,  and  the  most 
erroneous  opinions  might  thence  have  been  formed  "i  its  mode  of  operation. 

What  led  me  to  suspect  the  presence  of  gypsum,  in  this  bed  of  fossil 
shells,  was  the  circumstance  that  throughout  its  whole  extent,  of  near  a  mile 


CALCARE01  a  .MAM  086    PRACTICE.  g3 

along  the  river  bank,  this  bed  lies  on  another  earth,  of  peculiar  character 
and  appearance,  and  which,  in  many  places,  exhibits  gypsum  in  crystals  of 
various  sizes.    This  earth  lias  evidently  once  i  I  fossil  shells, 

like  what  still  remains  above;  but  nothing  now  is  left  of  the  shells,  except 
numerous  impressions  of  their  forma  No!  the  Btnallest  proportion  of  cal- 
careous earth  can  be  found,  and  the  gypsum  into  which  it  must  have  been 
changed  (by  meeting  with  sulphuric  acid,  or  sulpharet  of  iron.)  has  also 
disappeared  inmost  places;  and  in  others,  it  remains  only  in  small  quantities 
—  say  from  the  smallest  pen  ■  irtion,  to  iilteen  or  twenty  per 

cent,  of  the  mixed  mass.     In  so  ises,  this  gypseous  earth  is  suffi- 

ciently abundant  to  be  used  profitably  as  manure,  as  has  been  done,  by 
Mr.  Thomas  Cocke,  of  Tarbay,  as  well  as  myself  It  is  found  in  the  great- 
est quantity,  and  also  the  richest  in  gypsum,  at  Evergreen,  two  miles  be- 
low City  Point.  There  the  gypsum  frequently  forms  large  crystals  of  va- 
ried and  beautiful  forms.  The  distance  that  this  bed  of  gypseous  earth 
extends  is  about  seven  miles,  interrupted  only  by  some  bodies  of  lower 
land,  apparently  of  a  more  recent  formation  by  alluvion. 

In  the  bed  of  gypseous  marl  above  described,  there  are  regular  layers  of 
a  calcareous  rock,  which  was  too  hard  to  use  profitably  for  manure,  and 
which  caused  the  greatest  impediment  to  obtaining  the  softer  part.  This 
rack  contains  i  ninety  per  cent,  of  pure  calcareous 

earth,  besides  a  little  gypsum  and  iron.  It  makes  excellent  lime  for  cen 
mixed  with  twice  its  bulk  of  sand,  and  has  been  used  for  part  of  the  brick- 
work, and  all  the  plastering  of  my  present  dwellit  1  for  several 
of  my  neighbors'  houses.  The  whole  body  of  marl  also  contains  a  minute 
proportion  of  some  soluble  salts,  which  possibly  may  have  some  influence 
on  the  operation  of  the  substance,  as  manure  or  cement. 

Thus,  from  the  examination  of  a  single  body  of  marl,  there  have  been 
obtained  not  only  a  rich  calcareous  manure,  but  also  gypsum,  and  a  valu- 
able cement.  Similar  formations  may  perhaps  be  abundant  elsewhere,  and 
their  value  unsuspected,  and  likely  to  remain  useless.  This  particular  body 
of  marl  has  no  outward  appearance  of  possessing  even  its  calcareous  cha- 
racter. It  would  be  considered,  on  slight  inspection,  as  a  mass  of  gritty 
clay,  of  no  worth  whatever. 

The  last  preceding  paragraphs  present,  as  in  the  previous  editions,  my 
earliest  views  of  this  particular  bed  of  marl.  Further  information  has 
taught  that  it  is  of  the  eocene,  or  more  ancient  formation ;  and  that  the  un- 
derlying stratum,  (which  is  usually  not  at  all  i  which  I  formerly 
named  and  treated  of  as  "gypseous  earth,"  is  what  geologists  call  "  green- 
sand,"  a  term  still  less  descriptive,  and  not  at  all  more  accurate.  A  full 
account  of  both  of  these  bodies  will  be  given  in  the  Appendix. 

This  gypseous  marl  has  been  used  only  on  sixty  acres,  most  of  which 
was  neutral  soil,  and  generally,  if  not  universally,  with  early  as  well  as 
permanent  benefits.  The  following  experiments  show  results  more  striking 
than  have  been  usually  obtained ;  but  all  agree  in  their  general  character. 

Experimi,  ' 

1819.  Across  the  shelly  island  numbered  3  in  the  examinations  of  soils, 
(page  38.)  but  where  the  land  was  less  calcareous,  a  strip  of  three  quarters 
of  an  acre  was  covered  with  muscle-shell  marl,  a  deposite  on  parts  of  the 
river  banks  supposed  to  have  been  made  by  the  aboriginal  inhabitants. 
Touching  this,  through  its  whole  length,  another  strip  was  covered  with 
gypseous  marl,  53  per  cent.,  at  the  rate  of  250  bushels. 

Results.   1819.  In  com.     No  perceptible  effect  fiom  the  muscle  shells. 
The  gypseous  marling  considerably  better  than  on  either  side  of  it. 
12 


94 


CALCAREOUS  MAM'RES-PK.'. 


.1820.  Wheat— less  difference. 

.;.  Grazed.  Natural  growth  of  white  clover  thickly  set  on  the  gyp- 
seous marling,  much  thinner  on  the  muscle-shells,  and  still  less  of  it  where 
no  marl  had  been  applied. 

The  whole  field  afterwards  was  put  in  wheat  on  summer  fallow  even- 
second  year,  and  grazed  closely  the  intervening  year—  a  course  very  unfavor- 
able for  observing,  or  permitting  to  take  place,  any  effects  of  gypsum.  Nothing 
more  was  noted  of  this  experiment  until  1S25,  when  cattle  were  not  turned 
in  until  the  clover  reached  its  full  size.  The  strip  covered  with  gypseous 
marl  showed  a  remarkable  superiority  over  the  other  marled  piece,  as  well 
as  over  the  land  which  was  still  more  calcareous  by  nature,  and  which  had 
produced  better  in  1 820.  In  several  places,  the  white  clover  stood  thickly  a 
font  in  heieht. 

ritnaii  19. 

A  strip  of  a  quarter  acre  passing  through  rich  black  neutral  loam,  co- 
vered with  gypseous  marl  at  250  bushels. 

Results.  ISIS.  In  corn.  By  July,  the  marled  part  seemed  the  best  by 
50  per  cent.,  but  afterwards  the  other  land  gained  on  it,  and  little  or  no 
difference  was  apparent  when  the  crop  was  matured. 

IS  19.  Wheat — no  difference  seen. 

1820  and  1821.  At  rest  In  the  last  summer  the  marled  strip  could 
again  be  easily  traced,  by  the  entire  absence  of  sorrel,  (which  had  been 
gradually  increasing  on  this  land  since  it  had  been  secured  from  grazing.) 
and  still  more  by  its  very  luxuriant  growth  of  bird-foot  clover,  which  was 
thrice  as  good  as  that  on  the  adjoining  ground. 


Experimer,  I   . 

.  of  neutral  soil  which  had  been  reduced  quite  low,  but 
was  well  manured  in  IS  19  when  last  cultivated,  gypseous  marl  was  spread 
on  nine  acres,  at  the  rate  of  300  bushels.  This  terminated  on  one  side  at 
a  strip  of  muscle-shell  marl  ten  yards  wide — its  rate  not  remembered,  but 
it  was  certainly  thicker  in  proportion  to  the  calcareous  earth  contained,  than 
the  other,  which  I  always  avoided  laying  on  heavily,  from  a  mistaken  fear  of 
causing  injury  by  too  much  gypsum.  The  line  of  division  between  the  two 
marls  was  through  a  clay  loam.  The  subsoil  was  a  retentive  clay,  which 
caused  the  rain  water  to  keep  the  land  very  wet  through  the  winter,  and 
parly  pnrt  of  spring. 

In  com.  followed  by  wheat  in  1S23 — not  particularly  no- 
ticed, but  the  benefits  must  have  been  very  inconsiderable.  All  the  muscle- 
shell  marling,  and  four  acres  of  the  gypseous,  sowed  in  red  clover,  which 
stood  well,  but  was  severely  checked,  and  much  of  it  killed,  by  a  drought 
in  June,  when  the  sheltering  wheat  was  reaped.  During  the  next  winter 
(by  neglect)  my  horses  had  frequent  access  to  this  piece,  and  by  their  tram- 
pling in  its  wet  state  must  have  injured  both  land  and  clover.  From  these 
^rs  the  clover  recovered  surprisingly:  and  in  1524.  two  mowings 
were  obtained,  which,  though  not  heavy,  were  better  than  from  any  of  my 
previous  attempts  to  raise  this  grass.  In  1S25.  the  growth  was  still  better, 
and  yielded  more  to  the  scythe.  This  was  the  first  time  that  I  had  seen 
clover  worth  mowing  on  the  third  year  after  sowing — and  had  never  heard 
of  its  being  comparable  to  the  second-  year's  growth  any  where  in  the 
lower  countrj-.     The  growth  on  the  muscle-shell  marling  was  very  inferior 


CALCAREOUS  MANl  K l .       PH  .<  I'M  i:  (j.j 

to  the  other,  ami  was  not  mowed  at  all  the  last  year,  being  thin  and  low, 
and  almost  eaten  out  by  wire-gn  mdactylon.) 

1826.  In  coin  -and  il  was  remarkable  that  the  difference  shown  the  last 
year  was  reversed,  the  «   having  much  the  best 

crop. 

In  those  and  other  applications  to  neutral  soils.  I  ascribe  the  earliest 
.  entirely  to  gypsum,  as  well  as  the  peculiar  benefit  shown  to  clover, 
throughout  The  later  elicits,  and  especially  on  grain,  are  tine  to  the  cal- 
careous earth  in  the  manure. 


CHAPTEK  VIII. 

DIGRESSION    TO    THE    THEORY    OF    THE   ACTION"    OF   GYl'SUM    AS    MANURE.    SUlTuSEU 
CAUSE  Of  IIS  WANT  OF  POWER  AND  VALUE  ON  ACID  SOILS. 

Proposition  5 — continued. 

Another  opinion  was  formed  from  the  effects  of  gypseous  marl,  as  stated 
in  the  foregoing  chapter,  which  may  lead  to  profits  much  more  important 
than  any  to  be  derived  from  the  limited  use  of  this,  or  any  similar  mineral 
compound — viz.:  that  gj/psum  may  be  profitably  used  after  calc< 

.  on  anil.-!  on  finch  it  was  totally  inifficient  before.  I  do  not  present 
this  as  a  fact  fully  established,  or,  even  if  established,  of  universal  application  ; 
for  the  results  of  some  of  my  own  experiments  are  directly  in  opposition. 
But,  however  it  may  be  opposed  by  some  i  •  iter  weight  of  evi- 

dence, furnished  by  my  experiments  and  observations,  decidedly  suj 
this  opinion.     If  correct,  its  pqportam  e  to  our  low  i  ountry  is  inferior  only 
to  the  value  of  calcareous  ma  -which  value  may  be  almost 

doubled,  if  tlx?  land  is  thereby  fitted   I 
gypsum  and  clover. 

It  is  well  known  that  gypsum  has  failed  entirely  as  a  manure  on  nearly 
all  the  land  on  which  it  1  >ur  tide-water  district;  and  we 

may  learn  from  various  publications,  that  as  little  general  success  has  been 
met  with  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  as  far  north  as  Long  Island.  To  account 
for  this  general  failure  of  a  manure  so  efficacious  elsewhere,  some  one  of- 
fered  a  reason,  which  was  received  without  examination,  and  which  is  still 
considered  by  many  as  sufficient,  viz. :  that  the  influence  of  salt  vapors  de- 
stroyed the  power  of  gypsum  on  and  near  the  sea-coast,     But  the  same 

al  worthlessness  of  that  manure  extends  one  hundred  miles  higher 
than  the  salt  water  of  the  rivers — and  the  lands  where  it  is  profitably  used 
are  much  more  exposed  to  sea  air.  Such  are  the  rich  neutral  soils  of 
Curie's  Neck,  Shirley,  Berkley,  Brandon,  and  Sandy  Point,  on  James  river, 
on  all  which  gypsum  on  clover  has  been  extensive!)  and  prol 
On  acid  soils,  1  have  never  heard  of  enough  benefit  being  obtained  from 
gypsum  to  induce  the  cultivator  to  extend  its  use  further  than  makings 
few  small  experiments.     When  any  i  I  on  an  acid 

soil,  (so  far  as  instructed  by   my  own  experience,  or  the   inform., 
others.)  it  has  been  caused  by  applying  to  small  sp 

quantities;  and  even  then,  the  effects  were  neither  considerable,  durable 
nor  profitable.  Such  have  been  the  results  of  many  small  experiments 
made  on  my  own  acid  soils— and  very  rarely  was  the  least  i«rceptible 
effect  produced.  Vet  on  some  of  the  same  soils,  alter  marling,  the  most 
evident  benefits  have  been  obtained  from  gypsum  on  clover.  The  soils  on 
which  the  Istand  1  Oth  experiments  were  made,  (at  some  distance  from  these 


96  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 

experiments,)  had  both  been  tried  with  gypsum,  and  at  different  rates  of 
thickness,  before  marling,  without  the  least  effect.  Several  years  after 
both  had  been  marled,  gypseous  earth  (from  the  bed  referred  to,  page  93,) 
was  spread  at  twenty  bushels  the  acre,  (which  gave  four  bushels  of 
pure  gypsum,)  on  clover,  and  produced  in  some  pai  ts  a  growth  I  have 
never  seen  surpassed.  It  is  proper  to  state  that  such  results  have  been 
produced  only  by  heavy  dressings.  Mr.  Thomas  Cocke,  of  Tarbay, 
in  the  spring  of  1831  sowed  nearly  four  tons  of  Nova  Scotia  gypsum  on 
clover  on  marled  land,  the  field  being  a  continuation  of  the  same  ridge 
that  my  1st,  2d,  3d,  and  4th  experiments  were  made  on,  and  very  similar 
soil.  His  dressing,  at  a  bushel  to  the  acre,  before  the  summer  had  passed, 
produced  evident  benefit,  where  it  is  absolutely  certain,  from  abundant 
previous  experience,  that  none  could  have  been  obtained  before  marling. 

On  soils  naturally  calcareous,  I  have  in  some  experiments  greatly  pro- 
moted the  growth  of  corn  by  gypsum,  and  have  doubled  the  growth  of 
clover  on  my  best  land  of  that  kind.  When  the  marl  containing  gypsum 
was  applied,  benefit  from  that  ingredient  was  almost  certain  to  be  obtained. 

All  these  facts,  if  presented  alone,  would  seem  to  prove  clearly  the  cor- 
rectness of  the  opinion,  that  the  acidity  of  most  of  our  soils  caused  the 
inefficacy  of  gypsum,  and  that  the  application  of  calcareous  earth,  which  will 
remove  the  acid,  will  also  serve  to  bring  gypsum  into  useful  operation.  But 
this  most  desirable  conclusion  is  opposed  by  the  results  of  other  experi- 
ments, which,  though  fewer  in  number,  are  as  strong  as  any  of  the  facts 
that  favor  that  conclusion.  If  the  subject  were  properly  investigated,  those 
facts,  apparently  in  opposition,  might  be  explained  so  as  no  longer  to  con- 
tradict this  opinion,  or  perhaps  might  help  to  confirm  it.  Good  reasons,  de- 
duced from  established  chemical  truths,  may  be  offered  to  explain  why  the 
aciJity  of  our  soils  should  prevent  the  operation  of  gypsum ;  though  it 
may  be  deemed  premature  to  attempt  the  explanation  of  any  supposed  fact, 
before  every  doubt  of  the  existence  of  the  fact  itself  has  been  first  removed. 

One  of  the  circumstances  will  be  mentioned,  which  appears  at  first  glance 
most  strongly  opposed  to  the  opinion  which  has  been  advanced.  On  the 
poor  acid  clay  soil,  of  such  peculiar  and  base  qualities,  which  forms  the 
subject  of  the  5th,  6th,  and  7th  experiments,  gypsum  has  been  sufficiently 
tried,  and  has  not  produced  the  least  benefit,  either  before  marling,  or  after- 
wards. Yet  the  first  growth  of  clover  on  this  land  after  marling  is  fully 
equal  to  what  might  be  expected  from  the  best  operation  of  gypsum.  Now 
if  it  could  be  ascertained  that  a  very  small  proportion  of  either  sulphuric 
acid,  or  of  the  sulphate  of  iron,  exists  in  this  soil,  it  would  completely  ex- 
plain away  this  opposing  fact,  and  even  make  it  the  strongest  support  of 
my  position.  The  sulphate  of  iron  has  sometimes  been  found  in  arable 
soil,*  and  sulphuric  acid  has  been  detected  in  certain  clays.f  I  have  seen, 
on  the  same  farm,  a  bed  of  clay  of  very  similar  appearance  to  this  soil, 
which  certainly  had  once  contained  one  of  these  substances,  as  was  proved 
by  the  formation  of  crystallized  sulphate  of  lime,  where  the  clay  came  in 
contact  with  a  bed  of  marl.  The  sulphate  of  lime  was  found  in  the 
small  fissures  of  the  clay,  extending  sometimes  one  or  two  feet  in  perpen- 
dicular height  from  the  calcareous  earth  below.  Precise!}'  the  same  chemi- 
cal change  would  take  place  in  a  soil  containing  sulphuric  acid,  or  sulphate 
of  iron,  as  soon  as  marl  is  applied.  The  sulphuric  acid,  (whether  free 
or  combined  with  iron)  would  immediately  unite  with  the  lime  presented, 
and  form  gypsum,  (sulphate  of  lime.)  Proportions  of  these  substances,  too 
small  perhaps  to  be  detected  by  analysis,  would  be  sufficient  to  form  three 

•  Agr.  Cheui    p  141  t  Kirwau  on  Manures. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE.  97 

or  four  bushels  of  gypsum  to  the  acre -more  than  enough  to  produce  the 
greatest  known  effect  on  stover—and  to  prevent  any  benefit  being  derived 
from  a  subsequent  application  of  gypsum ;  bemuse  there  being  already  in 
the  soil  more  gypsam  than  could  act,  no  additional  quantity  could  be  of  the 
slightest  benefit 

since  the  publication  of  the  foregoing  part  of  this  chapter,  in  the  first 

edition,  my  use  of  gypsun i  land  formerly  acid,  has  been  more  extended, 

and  the  results  have  been  such  as  to  give  additional  confidence  in  the  prac- 
tice, and,  indeed,  an  assurance  of  good  profit,  on  the  average  of  such  ap- 
plications. But  still,  as  before,  disappointments,  cither  total  or  nearly  so,  in 
the  effect  of  such  applications,  have  sometimes  occurred,  and  without  there 
being  any  known  or  apparent  cause  to  which  to  attribute  such  disappoint- 
ment in  the  results. 

In  1832,  nine  acres  of  the  same  body  of  ridge  land  above  referred  to, 
adjoining  the  piece  on  which  the  1st,  2d,  3d  and  4th  experiments  were 
made,  and  more  lately  cleared,  were  sown  in  clover  in  the  early  part  of 
1831,  on  wheat.  The  next  spring,  French  gypsum  was  sown  at  the  rate 
of  a  bushel  to  the  acre,  except  on  four  marked  adjoining  squares,  each 
about  one  third  of  an  acre,  one  of  which  was  left  without  plaster,  and  the 
others  received  it  at  the  several  rates  of  2,  3,  and  4  bushels  to  the  acre. 
The  whole  brought  a  middling  crop,  and  was  mowed  for  hay,  except  the 
square  left  without  gypsum,  which  did  not  produce  more  than  half  as  much 
as  the  adjoining  land  where  gypsum  was  applied  at  one  bushel  the  acre. 
The  products  of  the  other  pieces  were  slightly  increased  by  each  addition  to 
the  gypsum,  but  by  no  means  in  proportion  to  the  increased  quantity  used ; 
nor  was  the  effect  of  the  four  bushels  near  equal  to  that  formerly  obtained, 
in  several  cases,  from  20  bushels  of  gypseous  earth  taken  from  the  river 
bank.  Hence  it  seems  that  it  was  not  merely  the  unusual  quantity  of  gyp- 
sum applied  in  this  earth,  which  produced  such  remarkable  benefit;  and 
we  must  infer  that  it  contains  some  other  quality  or  ingredient  capable  of 
giving  additional  improvement  to  clover. 

Since  the  first  publication  of  the  fori  age,  (in  1832,)  and  in  ac- 

cordance with  the  views  there  presented,  more  than  10  tons  of  good  French 
gypsum  has  been  used,  in  different  years  and  with  less  effect)  in  general, 
than  formerly,  in  the  first  few  years  after  the  marling.  This  general  dimi- 
nution, and  more  frequent  total  failures,  may  be  owing  to  the  longer  time 
that  the  land  has  been  marled,  and,  by  the  increase  of  its  vegetable  sup- 
plies serving  as  putrescent  manure,  the  land  being  thereby  changed  from 
calcareous  to  neutral,  and  perhaps  in  some  cases  even  approaching  to  be- 
ing acid.  If  this  supposition  be  well  founded,  then  a  repetition  of  the  marl- 
ing would  not  only  be  profitable  in  other  respects,  but  would  increase  or 
restore  the  capacity  of  the  soil  to  receive  benefit  from  gypsum. 

The  following  are  my  views  n['  the  general  causes  of  the  inertness  and 
worthlessness  of  gypsum  as  manure,  on  all  acid  soils,  and  for  the  different 
and  valuable  results  from  gypsum,  after  the  soils  have  been  made  calcareous, 

I  do  not  pretend  to  explain  the  mode  of  operation  by  which  gypsum  pro- 
duces its  almost  magical  benefits;  it  would  be  equally  hopeless  and  ridicu- 
lous for  one  having  so  little  knowledge  of  the  successful  practice  to  at- 
tempt an  explanation,  in  winch  so  many  g 1  chemists  and  agriculturists, 

both  scientific  and  practical,  have  completely  tailed.  There  is  no  operation 
of  nature  heretofore  less  understood,  or  of  which  the  cause,  01  agent, 
seems  so  totally  disproportioned  to  the  effect,  as  I  -  increase  of 

vegetable  growth  from  a  very  small  quantity  of  gypsum,  in  circumstances 
favorable  to  its  action.  All  other  known  manures,  whatever  may  be  the 
nature  of  their  action,  require  to  be  applied  in  quantities  very  far  exceed- 


98  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE. 

iiig  any  bulk  of  crop  expected  from  their  use.  But  one  bushel  of  gypsum 
spread  over  an  acre  of  land  fit  for  its  action,  may  add  more  than  twenty 
times  its  own  weight  to  a  single  crop  of  clover  hay. 

But  without  pretending  to  account  for  the  wonderful  action  of  gypsum 
as  manure,  and  without  entertaining  any  confidence  in  any  of  the  nume- 
rous theories  heretofore  presented,  (not  excepting  the  latest  set  forth,  by 
Professor  Liebig,)  I  concur*  in  the  general  opinion  expressed  by  Davy. 
This  accurate  investigator,  who  took  nothing  upon  trust  which  could  be 
subjected  to  the  test  of  rigid  experiment,  pursued  that  mode  to  obtain  light 
on  this  obscure  subject.  He  found  by  chemical  analysis,  that  gypsum  was 
always  present  in  the  ashes  of  red  clover,  and  in  quantity,  in  a  good  crop, 
amounting  to  three  or  four  bushels  to  the  acre.  He  inferred  that  gypsum, 
thus  always  forming  a  portion  of  the  clover  plant,  was  essential  to  its  healthy 
existence—  and  that  it  is  necessary  to  the  structure  of  the  woody  fibre  of 
clover  and  other  grasses.  But  it  is  enough  if  Davy  was  correct  in  the 
main  opinion,  that  a  certain  though  very  small  proportion  of  gypsum  is  an 
essential  component  part  of  certain  plants,  of  which  the  clover  tribe  fur- 
nishes the  most  noted  examples.  If  this  be  so,  no  matter  what  may  be  the 
office  or  function  of  the  gypsum,  the  small  amount  necessary  for  the  de- 
mands of  the  plants  must  be  present  in  the  soil,  or  otherwise  the  plants  need- 
ing it  ca?inot  live,  or  maintain  a  healthy  growth.  It  will  follow,  further, 
that  on  soils  well  adapted  for  clover  in  other  respects,  but  almost  totally 
deficient  in  gypsum,  the  application  of  so  small  a  dressing  as  one  bushel 
of  that  substance  to  the  acre  may  enable  a  full  crop  of  clover  to  grow,  and 
twice  or  thrice  as  much  as  the  land  could  have  brought  without  this  small 
application.  Such  I  suppose  to  be  the  circumstances  of  those  lands  of  this 
country  on  which  gypsum  exerts  the  greatest  power.  But  in  England, 
though  clover  culture  is  universally  extended,  gypsum  has  shown  scarcely 
any  benefit  as  manure,  and  though  extensively  experimented  with,  has  not 
been  found  sufficiently  operative  to  be  brought  into  ordinary  practice  on  any 
one  farm  in  the  kingdom.  This  may  be  accounted  for  by  supposing  the 
soils  generally  to  be  supplied  by  nature  abundantly  with  gypsum,  so  that 
no  more  is  required.  Davy  found  gypsum  in  the  soil  itself  of  four  farms, 
examined  with  this  view,  and  in  one  of  them  the  very  large  proportion  of 
nearly  one  per  cent.  (See  Agricultural  Chemistry,  Lecture  vii.)  But  there 
is  another  and  numerous  class  of  cases  in  which  gypsum  cannot  be  sup- 
posed to  be  present,  and  yet  when  applied  shows  no  benefit.  These  are 
the  poor  acid  soils  of  lower  Virginia,  (and  elsewhere.)  and  the  cause  of 
which  it  seems  to  me  not  difficult  to  explain. 

However  wonderful  and  inscrutable  the  fertilizing  power  of  this  manure 
may  be,  and  admitting  its  cause  as  yet  to  be  hidden,  and  entirely  beyond 
our  reach— still  it  is  possible  to  show  reasons  why  gypsum  cannot  act  in 
many  situations,  where  all  experience  has  proved  it  to  be  worthless.  If  this 
only  can  be  satisfactorily  explained,  it  will  remove  much  of  the  uncertainty 
as  to  the  effects  to  be  expected ;  and  the  farmer  may  thence  learn  on  which 
soils  he  may  hope  for  benefit  from  this  manure— on  which  it  will  certainly 
be  thrown  away— and  by  what  means  the  circumstances  adverse  to  its  ac- 
tion may  be  removed,  and  its  efficacy  thereby  secured.  This  is  the  expla- 
nation that  I  shall  attempt. 

If  the  vegetable  acid,  which  1  suppose  to  exist  in  what  I  have  called  acid 
soils,  is  not  the  oxalic,  (which  is  the  particular  acid  in  sorrel,)  at  least  every 
vegetable  acid,  being  composed  of  different  proportions  of  the  same  three 
elements,  may  easily  change  to  any  other,  and  all  to  the  oxalic  acid.  This, 
of  all  bodies  known  by  chemists,  has  the  strongest  attraction  for  lime,  and 
will  take  it  from  any  other  acid  which  was  before  combined  with  it,  and  for 


I   VI. «  Alii.'         MANURES-PRAt  Uci.  99 

that  purpose,  the  oxalic  acid  will  let  go  any  other  earth  or  metal,  which 
It  had  before  held  in  combination.  Let  ns  then  observe  what  worn 
the  effect  of  the  known  chemical  action  of  these  substances,  on  their  meet- 
ing in  soils,  if  oxalic  acid  were  produced  in  any  soil,  its  Immediate  affect 
would  be  to  unite  with  its  proper  proportion  of  lime  if  enough  were  in  the 
soil  in  any  combination  whatever.  II'  the  lime  were  in  such  small  quantity 
as  to  leave  an  excess  of  oxalic  acid,  that  excess  would  seize  on  the  other 
substances  in  the  soil,  in  the  order  of  their  mutual  attractive  force;  and 
one  or  more  of  such  substances  are  always  present,  as  magnesia;  or,  more 
certainly,  iron  and  alumina.  The  soil  then  would  not  only  contain  some 
proportion  of  the  oxalate  of  lime,  but  also  the  oxalate  of  either  one  or  more 
of  the  other  substances  named.  Lei  US  now  suppose  gypsum  to  be  applied  to 
this  soil.  This  substance  (sulphate  of  lime)  is  composed  of  sulphuric  acid 
and  lime.  It  is  applied  in  a  finely  pulverized  state,  and  in  quantities  from 
half  a  bushel  to  two  bushels  the  acre— generally  not  more  than  one  bushel. 
As  soon  as  the  earth  is  made  wet  enough  for  any  chemical  decomposition 
to  take  place,  the  oxalic  acid  must  let  go  its  ba*e  of  iron,  or  alumina,  and 
seize  upon  and  combine  with  the  lime  that  formed  an  ingredient  0! 
gypsum.  The  sulphuric  acid  left  free,  will  combine  with  the  iron,  or  the 
alumina  of  the  soil,  forming  copperas  in  the  one  case,  and  alum  in  the 
other.  The  gypsum  no  longer  exit/te —  and  surely  no  more  satisfactory 
reason  can  be  given  why  no  en'ect  from  it  should  follow.  The  decom 
tion  of  the  gypsum  has  served  to  form  two  or  perhaps  three  other  sul>- 
stanccs.  One  of  them,  oxalate  of  lime,  like  all  salts  of  lime,  is  probably  valu- 
able as  manure,  but  the  very  small  quantity  that  could  be  formed  out  of  one 
or  even  two  bushels  of  gypsum,  might  have  no  more  visible  effect  on  a  whole 
acre,  than  that  small  quantity  of  calcareous  earth,  or  farm-yard  manure. 
The  other  substance  certainly  formed,  copperas,  is  known  to  be  a  poison 
to  soil  and  to  plants— and  alum,  of  which  the  formation  would  be  doubtful. 
I  Mieve  is  also  hurtful.  In  such  small  quantities,  however,  the  poison 
would  be  as  little  perceptible  as  the  manure— and  no  apparent  effect  what- 
ever could  follow  such  an  application  of  gypsum  to  an  acid  soil.  So  small 
a  proportion  of  oxalic  acid,  or  any  oxalate  other  than  of  lime,  would  suffice 
to  decompose  and  destroy  the  gypsum,  that  it  would  not  amount  to  one 
part  in  twenty  thousand  of  the  soil. 

Why  gypsum  sometimes  acts  as  a  manure  on  acid  soils,  when  applied  in 
large  quantities  for  the  space,  is  equally  well  explained  by  the  same  theory. 
If  a  handful,  or  even  a  spoonful  of  gypsum  is  put  on  a  space  of  six  inches 
square,  it  would  so  much  exceed  in  proportion  all  the  oxalic  acid  that 
could  speedily  come  in  contact  with  it,  that  all  would  not  be  decomposed, 
and  the  part  that  continued  to  be  gypsum  would  show  its  peculiar  powers 
perhaps  long  enough  to  improve  one  crop.  Dut  as  tillage  served  to  scatter 
these  little  collections  more  equally  over  the  u  hole  space— or  even  as  repeat- 
ed soaking  rains  allowed  the  extension  of  the  attractive  powers— applications 
like  these  would  also  be  destroyed,  after  a  very  short-lived,  limited,  and 
rarely  profitable  action. 

's  that  are  naturally  calcareous  cannot  contain  oxalic  acid  combined 
with  any  other  base  than  lime.  Hence,  gypsum  applied  there  continues 
to  It  gypsum— and  exerts  its  great  fertilizing  power,  as  in  the  counties  of 
Loudoun  and  Frederick,  r.ut  even  on  these  most  suitable  soils,  this  manure 
is  said  not  to  be  certain  and  uniform  in  its  effects,  and  of  course  more  cer- 
tain results  are  not  to  be  looked  for  with  us.  I  have  not  undertaken  to  ex- 
plain its  occasional  failures  any  more  than  its  general  success,  on  the  lands 
where  it  is  profitably  used  in  general  but  only  Why  it  cannot  act  at  all.  on 
lands  of  a  different  kind 


100  CALCAREOls-  MAXl  KEss-PRACTICE. 

The. same  chemical  action  being  supposed,  explains  why  the  power  of 
profiting  by  gypsum  should  be  immediately  awakened  on  acid  soils  after 
making  them  calcareous— and  why  that  manure  should  seldom  fail,  when 
applied  mixed  with  much  larger  quantities  of  calcareous  earth. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  DAMAGE  CAUSED  BY  TOO    HEAVY    DRESSINGS    OF  CALCAREOUS  MANURE,  AND  THE 
REMEDY. 

Proposition  5 — continued. 

The  injury  or  disease  in  grain  crops  produced  by  marling  has  so  lately 
been  presented  to  our  notice,  that  the  collection  and  comparison  of  many 
additional  facts  will  be  required  before  its  cause  can  be  satisfactorily  ex- 
plained. But  the  facts  already  ascertained  will  at  least  show  how  to  avoid 
the  danger  of  such  injury  in  future,  and  to  find  remedies  for  the  evils  al- 
ready inflicted  by  the  injudicious  use  of  calcareous  manures. 

The  earliest  effect  of  this  kind  observed  was  in  May,  1824,  on  the  field 
containing  experiment  10.  The  corn  on  the  land  marled  four  years  before 
sprang  up  and  grew  with  all  the  vigor  and  luxuriance  that  was  expected 
from  the  appearance  of  increased  fertility  exhibited  by  the  soil,  as  before 
described,  (page  84.)  About  the  20th  of  May  the  change  commenced,  and 
the  worst  symptoms  of  the  disease  were  seen  by  the  1 1th  of  June.  From 
having  as  deep  a  color  as  young  corn  shows  on  the  richest  and  best  soils, 
it  became  of  a  pale  sickly  green.  The  leaves,  when  closely  examined, 
seemed  almost  transparent,  afterwards  were  marked  through  their  whole 
length  by  streaks  of  rusty  red,  separated  very  regularly  by  other  streaks 
of  what  was  then  more  of  yellow  than  green,  and  next  they  began  to  shri- 
vel and  die  downwards  from  their  extremities.  The-  growth  of  many  of 
the  plants  was  nearly  stopped.  Still"  some  few  showed  no  sign  of  injury, 
and  maintained  the  vigorous  growth  which  they  began  with,  so  as  by  con- 
trast more  strongly  to  mark  the  general  loss  sustained.  The  appearance  of 
the  field  was  such,  that  a  stranger  would  have  supposed  that  he  saw  the 
crop  on  a  rich  soil  exposed  to  the  worst  ravages  of  some  destructive  kind 
of  insects;  but  neither  on  the  roots  or  stalks  of  the  corn  could  any  thing  be 
found  to  support  that  opinion.  Before  the  first  of  August  this  gloomy 
prospect  had  somewhat  improved.  Most  of  the  plants  seemed  to  have  been 
relieved  of  the  infliction,  and  to  grow  again  with  renewed  vigor.  But  be- 
fore that  time  many  were  dead,  and  it  was  impossible  that  the  others  could 
so  fully  recover  as  to  produce  any  thing  approaching  a  full  crop  for  the  land. 
It  has  been  shown  in  the  report  of  the  products  of  Exp.  10,  what  diminu- 
tion of  crop  was  then  sustained— and  that  the  evil  was  not  abated  in  the 
three  succeeding  courses  of  cultivation.  Still,  neither  of  the  diseased 
measured  pieces  has  fallen  quite  as  low  as  its  product  before  marling; 
nor  do  I  think  that  such  has  been  the  result  on  any  one  acre  together  on 
my  farm,  though  many  smaller  spots  have  been  rendered  incapable  of 
yielding  even  so  much  as  a  grain  of  corn  or  wheat. 

The  injury  caused  to  wheat  by  marling  is  not  so  easy  to  describe,  though 
abundantly  evident  to  the  observer.  Its  earliest  growth,  like  that  of  corn, 
is  not  affected.  About  the  time  for  heading,  the  plants  most  diseased  ap- 
pear as  if  they  were  scorched,  and  when  ripe  will  be  found  very  deficient 
in  grain.  On  very  poor  spots,  from  which  nearly  all  the  soil  has  been 
washed,  sometimes  fifty  heads  of  wheat,  taken  together,  would  not  furnish 


CALC&.RE0U8  MAJSURE8— PRACTICE  101 

as  many  grains  of  wheat.  This  crop,  however,  stilTois  loss  than  corn  on 
the  same  land ;  perhaps  because  itsjgrowthi  '•  bythatime 

that  the  warm  season  begins,  H  which  the  ill  effects  of  calcareous  manures 
serin  confined.     The  injury  to  corn  I  drier 

summer. 

When  these  unpleasant  discoveries  were  firs!  made,  two  hundred  and 
fifty  acres  had  already  been  marled  bo  heavily  thai  the  same  evil  was  to 
be  expected  to  visit  the  whole.  My  labors,  thus  bestowed  for  years,  had 
been  greatly  an.l  unnecessarily  increased— and  the  excess,  worse  than  bc- 
ing  thrown  away,  had  served  to  take  away  thai  increase  of  crop  which 
lighter  marling  would  have  ensured  But  though  much  and  general  injury 
was  afterwards  sustained  from  the  previous  work,  yet  it  was  lessened  in 
extent  and  degree,  and  sometimes  entirely  avoided,  by  the  remedial  mea- 
sures which  were  adopted.  My  observation  and  comparison  of  all  the 
facts  presented,  led  to  the  following  conclusions,  and  pointed  out  the  course 
by  which  to  avoid  the  recurrence  of  the  evil,  and  the  means  to  lessen  or 
remove  it,  where  it  had  already  been  inflicted. 

1st.  No  injury  has  been  sustained  on  any  soil  of  my  farm  by  marling 
not  more  heavily  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  heaped  bushels  to  the  acre, 
with  marl  of  strength  not  exceeding  40  per  cent,  of  calcareous  earth. 

2d.  Dressings  twice  as  heavy  seldom  produce  damage  to  the  first  crop 
on  any  soil  -and  never  even  on  the  after  crops  on  any  calcareous,  or  good 
neutral  soil—  nor  on  any  acid  soil  supplied  plentifully  with  vegetable  matter. 

3d.  On  acid  soils  marled  too  heavily,  the  injury  is  in  to  the 

extent  of  one  or  all  these  circumstances  of  the  soil— poverty,  sandiness, 
and  severe  cropping  and  grazing,  whether  indicted  previously  or  subse- 
quently. 

4th.  (lover,  both  red  and  white,  will  live  and  flourish  on  the  spots  most 
injured  for  grain  crops  by  marling  too  heavily.  Thus,  in  the  case  before 
cited  of  land  adjacent  to  the  pieces  measured  in  experimenl  10,  and  equally 
over-marled,  very  heavy  red  clover  was  raised  in  1830,  by  adding  gypseous 
earth,  and  which  v  I  by  a  good  growth  of  corn,  free  from  every 

mark  of  disease,  in  1832. 

5th.  A  good  dressing  of  putrescent  manure  removes  the  disease  com- 
pletely, (see  Exp.  11,  12,  1 3.)  All  kinds  of  marl  (or  fossil  shells)  have  some- 
times been  injurious— but  such  effects  have  been  more  generally  experi- 
enced from  the  dry  yellow  marl,  than  from  the  blue  and  wet. 

The  inferences  to  be  drawn  from  these  facts  arc  obvious.  They  direct 
us  to  avoid  injury  by  applying  marl  lightly  at  first,  and  to  be  still  more 
cautious  according  to  the  existence  of  (he  circumstances  staled  as  in< 
ing  the  tendency  (4"  marl  to  do  harm.  Next,  if  the  over-dose  has  already 
been  given,  we  should  forbid  -grazing  entirely,  and  furnish  putrescent  ma- 
nure as  far  as  possible—  or  omit  one  or  two  grain  crops,  so  as  to  allow  more 
vegetable  matter  to  be  fixed  in  the  Iand>r  apply  putrescent  manures— and 
sow  clover  as  soon  as  circumstances  permit.  One  or  more  of  these  reme- 
dies have  been  used  on  most  of  my  too  heavily  marled  land  ;  and  with 
considerable,  though  not  always  with  entire  success,  because  the  means  for 
the  cure  could  not  always  be  furnished  at  once  in  sufficient  abundance. 
Other  persons,  who  permitted  close  grazing,  ami  adopted  a  more  scourging 
rotation  of  crops,  have  Buffered  more  damage,  from  much  lighter  dressings  of 
marl  than  those  of  mine  which  were  injurious. 

But  though  the  unlooked-for  damage  sustained  from  this  cause  produced 

much  loss  and  disappointment,  and  has  greatly  retarded  the  progress  of  my 

improvements,  it  did  not  suspend  my  marling,  nor  abate  my  estimate  of  the 

value  of  the  manure.     If  a  cover  of  500  or  900  bushels  was  so  strong  as 

13 


■  Ag  CALCAREOUS  MA-\L. 

to  injure  iaod  of  certain  qualities,  it  seemed  to  be  a  fair  deduction,  thai 
benefit  especteJ  from  so  heavy  a  dressing,  might  have  been  obtained  from 
half  the  quantity — if  not  on  the  first  crop,  at  least  on  every  one  afterwards. 
That  surely  is  nothing  to  be  lamented.  It  also  afforded  some  consolation 
for  the  evil  of  the  too  heavy  mailings  already  applied,  that  the  soil  was 
j  fitted  to  seize  upon  and  retain  a  greater  quantity  of  vegetable  mat- 
ter, and  would  thereby  ultimately  reach  a  higher  f  fertility. 

cause  of  this  disease  is  less  apparent  than  its  remedies.  It  is  certain 
that  it  is  not  produced  merely  by  the  quantity  of  calcareous  earth  in  the 
soiL  If  it  were  so.  similar  effects,  shown  in  diseased  crops,  would  always 
be  found  on  soils  containing  far  greater  proportions  of  that  earth.  These 
injurious  effects  have  not  been  known,  to  any  extent,  except  on  soils  for- 
merly acid,  and  made  calcareous  artificially :  and  not  on  either  neutral  or 
calcareous  soils,  even  by  the  addition  of  a  great  excess  of  marl  The  small 
spots  of  land  that  nature  has  made  excessively  calcareous,  and  also  sandy 
by  marl  beds  cropping  out  at  the  surface  of  cultivated  fields,  (as  the  speci- 
men 4,  page  3S.)  produce  indeed  a  pale  feeble  growth  of  corn,  such  as  might 
be  expected  from  poor  gravelly  soils—  but  whether  the  p. :  a,  or 

are  barren,  they  show  none  of  those  peculiar  and  strongly  marked  symp- 
toms of  disease  which  have  been  described.  Some  such  places  on  my  farm, 
from  which  great  quantities  of  poor  sandy  marl  had  been»removed  for  ma- 
nure, and  where  the  remainder  still  was  of  unknown  depth,  have  been  after- 
wards cultivated  with  the  surrounding  land:  and  with  no  more  aid  than  the 
portion  of  the  adjacent  soil  carried  thereto  necessarily  by  the  plough,  these 
places  have  gradually  improved  to  a  product  equal  to  12  or  15  bushels  of 
corn  per  acre,  and  have  never  exhibited  any  mark  of  the  man  disease. 

calculation,  it  appears  that  the  heaviest  dressing  causing  injurious 
consequences,  if  mixed  to  the  depth  of  five  inches,  has  not  given  to  the  soQ 
a  proportion  of  calcareous  earth  equal  to  two  per  cent  This  proportion  is 
greatly  exceeded  in  our  best  shelly  land,  and  no  such  disease  is  found  there, 
even  when  the  rich  mould  is  nearly  all  washed  away,  and  the  shells  mostly 
left  Soils  of  remarkable  fertility  from  the  prairies  of  Alabama  and  Missis- 
sippi have  been  shown  (page  43)  to  contain  from  8  to  16  per  cent  of  calca- 
reous earth,  all  of  which  proportions  were  in  the  state  of  most  minute  divi- 
sion, and  therefore  most  ready  to  produce  this  disease,  if  it  could  have  been 
produced  by  the  quantity  of  this  ingredient  The  soil  of  the  borders  of 
rbrated  for  its  exuberant  fertility  through  thousands  of  succes- 
:rops,  contains  about  25  per  cent  of  carbonate  of  lime.  (/ 
Geologi,:)  Very  fertile  soils  in  France  and  England  sometimes  contain  '20 
i  :>ils  of  remarkable  good  qualities  analyzed 
by  Daw.  one  is  stated  to  contain  about  2S  per  cent.,  and  another,  which 
was  eight-  us  sand,  contained  nearly  10  per  cent  of  calca- 

reous earth.  Nor  does  he  intimate  that  such  proportions  are  very  rare. 
Similar  results  have  been  stated,  from  analyses  reported  by  Kirwan,  Young. 
Bersnnan,  and  Rozier.  .page  32,)  and  from  all  the  same  deduction  is  inevi- 
table, that  much  larger  natural-  proportions  of  calcareous  earth,  than  our 
diseased  lands  have  received,  are  very  common  in  France  and  England, 
without  any  such  effect  being  produced. 

From  the  numerous  facts  oi  which  these  are  examples,  it  is  certain  that 
calcareous  earth  acting  alone,  or  directly,  has  not  caused  this  injury ;  and 
it  seems  most  probable  that  the  cause  is  some  new  combination  of  lime 
formed  in  add  soils  only  ;  and  that  this  new  combination  is  hurtful  to  grain 
under  certain  circumstances,  which  we  may  avoid,  and  is  highly  beneficial 
to  even-  kind  of  clover.  Perhaps  it  is  the  salt  of  lime,  formed  by  the  calca- 
reous manure  combining  with  the  acid  of  the  soil,  which  not  meeting  with 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES     PRACTICE.  JQ3 

enough  \  *■■.  etable  matter  to  combine  with  and  fix  in  the  soif,  causes,  by  its 
ill  these  injui 


CHAPTER  X. 

llir.MION  OF    THB  EFFECTS  OF    CALCAREOUS    MANURES,  AND    r>IRE<  TIONS  FOR 
rHEJR   .MOST   PBOl  M'AUI.E  APPLICATIONS 

Proposition  5— continued, 

I  ■Ymi.i  the  foregoing  experiments  maybe  gathered  most  of  the  efTects, 
both  injurious  hit  1  beneficial;  to  be  expected  from  calcareous  manures,  on 
the  several  kinds  of  soils  there  described.  Information  obtained  from  state- 
ments in  detail  of  agricultural  experiments,  is  far  more  satisfactory,  to  the 
attentive  and  laborious  inquirer,  than  a  mere  report  of  the  general  opinions 
of  the  experimenter,  derived  from  the  results.  But  however  preferable  may 
be  this  mode  of  reporting  facts,  it  is  necessarily  deficient  in  method,  clear- 
hess,  and  conciseness.  It  may  therefore  be  useful  to  bring  together  the 
general  results  of  these  experiments  in  a  somewhat  digested  form,  to  serve 
as  rules  for  practice.  Other  effects  of  calcareous  manures  will  also  be 
stated,  which  ;l|'p  equally  established  by  experience,  but  which  did  not  be- 
long  to  any  one  accurately  observed  experiment. 

The  results  that  have  been  reported  confirm  in  almost  every  particular 
the  chemical  powers  before  attributed  to  calcareous  manures,  by  the  theory 
of  their  action.  It  is  admitted  that  causes  and  eflects  were  not  always 
proportioned— and  that  sometimes  trivial  apparent  contradictions  were  pre- 
sented. But  this  is  inevitable,  cv(i]  with  regard  to  the  best  establi 
doctrines,  an  perfect  processes  in  agriculture)     There  are  many 

practices  universally  admitted  to  be  bene  cial;  yetther)  which 

are  not  found  sometimes  useless,. or  hurtful,  on  account  of  some- other  at- 
tendant circumstance,  wl  id  perhaps  not  discovered. 
Every  application  ol  calcareous  earth  to  soil  is  a  chemical  operation  on  a 
great  scale.  Decompositions  and  new  combinations- are  produced,  and1  in 
a  manner  generally  conforming  to  the  operator's  expectations.  But  other 
and  unknown  agents  may  sometimes  have  a  share  in  the  process,  and  thus 
cause  unlooked-for  results.  Such  differences  between  practice  and  theory 
have  sometimes  occurred  in  my  use  of  calcareous  manures,  fas  may  be 
.ed  in  some  of  the  reported  exp  ill  they  have  neither  been 
frequent,  uniform,  nor  important. 

But  in  nearly  all  such  i  ases  of  disproportion  between  causes  and  effects, 
in  the  use  of  marl,  the  manner  of  variation  '  the  effects  surpass- 

ing thi  er  of  the  .causes,  (as   previously  inferred  from  rea- 

soning and  in  advance  of  my  practice, 

of  the  contrary  operation,  of  the  results  falling  short  of  what  might  have 
been  inferred  from  the  theory  of  the  appon  of  calcareous  manures.     9m 
such  variation  as  this,  it  may  be  that  no  reader  will  require  either  exeuse  oi 
explanation  ;   nevertheless  it  is  as  much  due  to  truth  that  it  should  best 
as  if  the  opposite  kind  of  differeni 

Before  my  earliest  trials,  or  practical  kno  marl, 

[  was  well  assured  that  this  manure  would  con  eel  the  nidi  y  of  poor  soil, 
and  enable  it  to  be  enriched  by  putrescent  manures  But  I  was  still  totally 
at  a  loss  to  know,  how  much  calcareous  earth  would  be  re- 

quired for  that  result,  or  how  much  time  might  he  required  for  the  sufficient 


104  CALCAREOUS  MANl/KES-PKACTICE. 

quantity  to  produce  its  full  effect ;  and  there  were  grounds  to  fear  that  the 
quantity  of  the  manure  and  time  for  its  operation,  and  consequently  the 
cost  compared  to  profit,  would  be  much  greater  than  after-experience  has 
shown.  If  1000  bushels  of  ordinary  marl  had  been  required  for  an  acre, 
and  10  years  time  for  that  application  to  raise  the  product  to  double  its 
previous  rate,  the  theory  of  the  action  of  calcareous  manures  would  have 
been  sustained.  But  in  fact,  as  great  effect  as  this  has  been  usually  pro- 
duced, (in  judicious  and  proper  practice,)  by  measures  of  marl  and  of  time  less 
by  three-fourths  than  those  just  stated.  And  thus,  while  effects  have  almost 
universally  exceeded  in  measure  the  supposed  power  of  their  causes,  I  may 
safely  assert  that  in  not  a  single  case,  in  the  tide-water  region,  of  a  judi- 
cious application  of  marl  or  lime,  has  it  been  known  thaf  the  effect  fell 
short  of  what  would  be  indicated  by  my  theory  of  the  action  of  calcare- 
ous earth  as  manure. 

But  there  is  still  another  exception,  if  it  be  one,  to  admit,  or  of  apparent 
want  of  accordance  between  theory  and  practice;  and  unluckily,  this 
case  is  of  the  effects  falling  short  of  the  supposed  power  of  causes. 
There  has  as  yet  been  made  but  little  use  of  lime  in  the  region  immediately 
above  the  granite  ridge  which  forms  the  lower  falls  of  our  eastern  rivers. 
But  almost  all  the  failures  of  lime  to  act  that  have  been  heard  of,  or  of 
effects  falling  much  short  of  what  were  expected  and  are  usual,  are  among 
the  few.  experiments  which  have  been  made  within  fifty  miles  above  the 
granite  ridge.  While  truth  requires  that  the  fact  of  these  failures  should 
be  stated,  I  pretend  not  to  account  for  them.  It  may  be  the  case,  and  proba- 
bly is,  that  there  is  a  general  difference  of  chemical  constitution  between 
even  lands  of  like  apparent  texture  and  qualities,  above  and  below  the 
falls.  Of  the  lands  above,  my  knowledge  is  but  slight,  and  founded  only 
on  general  and  slight  personal  observation,  or  the  report  and  better  inform- 
ation of  practical  cultivators.  But  judging  from  such  uncertain  lights,  I  would 
infer  that  the  lands  above  the  falls  were  much  less  acid  than  those  below, 
even  when  as  poor.  The  growth  of  pine  and  of  sorrel  is  more  scarce  on 
lands  above  the  falls;  and  gypsum  often  acts  there  on  natural  soils,  and 
lime  (in  some  known  trials)  has  produced  but  slight  benefit.  On  the 
contrary,  gypsum  is  scarcely  ever  operative  on  any  natural  soil  below  the  falls, 
(that  is  on  none  of  the  great  body  of  acid  soil,)  and  lime  never  fails  to  act 
on  these  same  lands. 

The  most  important  observation  to  be  made  on  the  disproportion  of 
causes  and  effects,  in  the  tide-water  region,  is  in  regard  to  good  neutral 
soils,  and  especially  as  to  that  best  class  known  by  4he  common  name  of 
"  mulatto  land."  On  such  soils,  which  constitute  the  chief  value  of  the 
best  farms  of  James  river,  the  applications  of  lime  have  been  the  most 
extensive,  and  always  highly  effective. 

The  fact  that  the  effects  of  calcareous  manures  so  generally  exceed  in 
measure  the  supposed  power  of  their  causes,  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
some  other  kind  of  action  of  calcareous  earth  as  manure  operates,  in  addition 
to  all  those  set  forth  in  chapter  viii.     This  I  think  is  more  than  probable. 

Dismissing  then  from  further  consideration  such  exceptions  (whether 
real  or  apparent)  to  general  rules,  I  will  return  to  stating  Hie  results  of 
applying  marl  as  they  have  occurred  almost  without  exception  in  my  own 
practice,  and  which  are  confirmed  by  the  concurrence  of  all  known  and  cer- 
tain testimony  in  regard  to  practical  operations  in  the  marl  region  of 
Virginia. 

Under  like  circumstances  in  other  respects,  the  benefit  derived  from  marl- 
ing will  be  in  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  vegetable  or  other  putrescent 
matter  given  to  the  soil.     It  is  essential  that  the  cultivation  should  be  mild. 


i  INURES  -PRACTICE.  ]()5 

and  that  no  grazing  be  permitted  on  poor  la  tillage,  and 

which  have  no  supply  of  putrescent  manure,  except  th<  weeds 

growing  on  (hem,  while  a(  rest.     Wherever  (arm-yard  manure  is-used,  the 
land  should  be  marled  heavily,  and  il  Brst^  so  much  the 

better.     Tahe  marl  cannot  ai  (   by  (ixiiiL.'  the  other  manure,  except  so  far  fa 
they  are  in  contact,  and  when  Both  are  well  mixed  with  fhe  sou. 

When  I  irst  asserted  the  agency  i  bus  manures  in 

fixing  alimentary  manures  in  soilsi  and  maintained  the  great  and  indispen- 
nccessity  of  that  operation,  the  proposition  was  founded  almost  ex- 
clusively on  reasoning,  and  on  of  natural  soils,  and  not  at  all  on 
practical  effects  experienced  hum  applications  of  marl  or  lime.  From  the 
very  nature  of  the  case,  such  effects  as  these,  however  important  and 
valuable,  coulJ  not  he  seen  at  first,  nor  fully  even  in  a  very  few  years  after  be- 
ginning to  marl,  nor  their  extent  understood  and  appreciated.  Moreover, 
my  earlier  experience  had  shown  so  fully  the  incapacity  of  my  acid  or  na- 
turally poor  soils  to  retain  alimentary  manures,  and  my  labors  and  expendi- 
tures to  apply  them  had  been  so  very  unprofitable,  that  I  was  not  myself 
prepared  for  the  full  extent  of  the  contrary  operation,  after  marl  had  been 
applied.  And  though  the  views  and  estimation  of  such  new  operation 
have  been  yearly  enlarging,  from  the  experience  oi  practical  results,  yet 
even  when  the  last  edition  of  this  work  was  published,  my  estimate  of  the 
facing  value  of  marl  fell  short  of  what  is  now  confidently  believed,  and 
which  is  every  season  manifest,  of  the  greater  effect  and  permanency,  and 
far  greater  profit  of  alimentary  manures,  caused  solely  by  the  presence  of 
treous  earth  in  the  same  soils.  .Notwithstanding  that  the  theory  of  the 
action  of  calcareous  manures,  as  set  forth  in  this  essay,  and  published  as 
early  as  1821,  made  this  fixing  operation  the  first  of  the  two  most  Import- 
ant agencies,  and  though,  that  theoretical  \i'  •  practice  from  the 
beginning,  still  it  was  not  until  alter  a  long  time,  that  gradually  and  slowly 
I  fully  and  truly  estimated  the  value  and  profit  of  this  operation.  My  early 
and  zealous  efforts  (before  beginning  to  marl)  to  improve  naturally  poor 
lands  by  the  md  animal  manures  of  the  farm,  had  been  so  much 
disappointed,  and  the  effects  had  been  SO  inconsiderable  as  well  as  so  fleet- 
ing, that  it  was  long  before  1  arrived  at  the  conviction  of  the  full  extent  of 
the  opposite  and  new  condition  of  the  soil.  Cut  during  latter  years,  the 
certain  and  profitable  operation,  and  durable  operation,  of  every  kind  of 
vegetable  or  alimentary  manure,  no  matter  how  or  when  applied,  has  been 
made  obvious;  and  now  my  estimate  of  value  would  be,  that  if  marling 
had  no  other  operation  whatever  than  this  one  of  making  other  manures 
much  more  active  and  durable,  the  profit  from  this  one  source  alone  would 
amply  reward  all  the  usual  labors  and  expenses  of  marling. 

On  "galled"  spots,  from  w  Inch  all  the  soil  has  been  washed,  and  where  no 
plant  can  live,  the  application  of  marl  alone  is  utterly  useless;  at  least, 
until  time  and  accident  shall  furnish  some  addition  of  vegetable  matter 
also.  Putrescent  manures  alone  would  there  have  but  little  elicit,  unless 
in  great  quantity,  and  would  soon  be  all  lost.  But  marl  and  putri 
matter  together  serve  to  form  anew  soil,  and  thus  both  arc  brought  into 
useful  action ;  the  marl  is  made  active,  and  the  putrescent  manure  perma- 
nent. The  only  perfect  cures,  that  I  have  been  able  to  make,  at  one  opera? 
tion,  of  galls  produced  upon  a  barren  subsoil,  were  by  applying  a  heavy 
dressing  of  both  calcareous  and  putrescent  manures  together;  and  this 
method  may  be  relied  on  as  certainly  effectual.  But  though  a  fertile  soil 
may  thus  be  created,  and  fixed  durably  on  galls  other  v.  itmable, 

the  cost  will  generally  exceed  the  value  ol  ovefed,  from  the 

great  quantity  of  putrescent  matter  required.     Much  of  our  acid  hilly  land 


106  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE. 

has  been  deprived,  by  washing,  of  a  considerable  portion  of  its  natural 
soil,  though  not  yet  made  entirely  barren.  The  foregoing  remarks  equally 
apply  to  this  kind  of  land,  to  the  extent  that  its  soil  has  been  carried  off. 
It  will  be  profitable  to  apply  marl  to  such  land ;  but  its  effect  will  be  dimi- 
nished, in  proportion  to  the  previous  removal  of  the  soil.  Calcareous  soils, 
from  the  difference  of  texture,  are  much  less  apt  to  wash  than  other  kinds. 
Within  a  few  years  after  marling  a  field  that  has  been  injured  by  washing, 
many  of  the  old  gulleys  will  begin  to  produce  vegetation,  and  show  that  a 
soil  is  gradually  forming  from  the  dead  vegetables  brought  there  by  winds 
and  rains,  although  no  means  had  been  used  to  aid  this  operation. 

This  newly  acquired  ability  to  resist  the  washing  power  of  rains,  is  one 
of  the  most  beneficial  effects  of  marling  on  hilly  lands.  And  this  effect  is 
no  less  certain,  than  it  is  conformable  to  the  theory  of  the  action  of  marl 
and  to  reason.  On  soils  containing  very  little  lime,  (or  none,  as  in  naked 
sub-soils,)  whether  they  be  sandy  or  clayey,  there  is  nothing  to  combine  the 
vegetable  matter  with  the  soil,  nor  the  different  ingredients  of  the  soil  whh 
each  other.  Consequently  they  have  no  cohesion,  and  whenever  made  very 
soft,  or  semi-fluid  by  rains,  and  there  is  any  declivity,  there  is  nothing  to 
prevent  the  soil,  or  upper  surface,  being  washed  off  by  excessive  rain,  though 
falling  gently.  Of  course,  torrents  of  rain  produce  the  same  injurious  effects 
much  more  rapidly  and  effectually.  But  when  such  soils  have  been  made 
calcareous,  a  chemical  combination  and  bond  of  union  and  coherence  is 
formed  between  the  lime  and  the  putrescent  or  organic  matter,  and  of  both 
with  the  silicious  and  argillaceous  parts  of  the  soil,  which  combination  is 
able  to  resist  any  but  an  unusual  degree  of  the  washing  action  of  rains. 
Moreover,  by  the  increase  of  productive  power  thus  given,  grass  grows 
more  kindly  and  rapidly,  and  by  its  decay  the  vegetable  mould  is  con- 
tinually augmented,  and  thereby  the  power  of  resisting  washing  is  still 
more  increased  as  the  fertility  of  the  soil  is  increased.  This  is  but  another 
aspect  and  operation  of  the  power  of  calcareous  manure  in  soils  to  fix  and 
retain  manures. 

The  effect  of  marling  will  be  much  lessened  by  the  soil  being  kept  under 
exhausting  cultivation.  Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  we 
may  suppose  that  marl  was  tried  and  abandoned  many  years  ago,  in  the 
case  referred  to  in  page  70.  Proceeding  upon  the  false  supposition  that 
marl  was  to  enrich  by  direct  action,  like  dung,  it  is  most  probable  that  it 
was  applied  to  some  of  the  poorest  and  most  exhausted  land,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  giving  the  manure  a  "  fair  trial."  The  disappointment  of  such  ill- 
founded  expectations  was  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  experiment  not  being 
repeated,  or  being  scarcely  ever  referred  to  again,  unless  as  evidence  of 
the  worthlessness  of  marl.  Yet  with  proper  views  of  the  action  of  this 
manure,  this  experiment  might  at  first  have  as  well  proved  the  early  effica- 
cy and  value  of  marl,  as  it  now  does  its  durability. 

When  acid  soils  are  equally  poor,  the  increase  of  the  first  crop  from 
marling  will  be  greater  on  sandy,  than  on  clay  soils  ;  though  the  latter,  by 
heavier  dressings  and  longer  time,  may  ultimately  become  the  best  land, 
at  least  for  wheat  and  for  grass.  The  more  acid  the  growth  of  any  soil  is, 
or  would  be,  if  suffered  to  stand,  the  more  increase  of  crop  may  be  ex- 
pected from  marl ;  which  is  directly  the  reverse  of  the  effects  of  putrescent 
manures.  The  increase  of  the  first  crop  on  worn  acid  soil,  I  have  never 
known  under  fifty  per  cent.,  and  more  often  it  is  as  much  as  one  hundred ; 
and  the  improvement  continues  to  increase,  under  mild  tillage,  to  three  or 
four  times  the  original  product  of  the  land.  [See  Exp.  11,  page  86,  and 
Exp.  4  and  6.]  In  this,  and  other  general  statements  of  effects,  I  suppose 
the  land  to  bear  not  more  than  two  grain  crops  in  four  years,  and  not  to 


CAI.l  AKI.nl   S   MANUfl  I  ICE.  107 

be  subjected  to  grazing  during  the  other  two;  and  that  a  sufficient 
of  marl  has  been  laid  on  for  use,  and  not  i  -case.     It  is 

true,  that  it  Is  difficult,  if  not  lm]  i   ix  that  proper  mediiftn,  vary- 

ing as  it  may  mi  every  change  of  BoO,  ol  cropping,  an. I  of  .the  kind  of  marl. 
But  whatever  error  may  he  made  in  the  proportion  of  marl  applied,  let  it 
be  on  the  side  of  light  dre  manures  are  also 

laid  on,  pr  designed  to  he  laid  ■ 

—  and  if  less  increase  q|  e,the  •  < >st  and* labor  of 

marling  will  be  lessened  in  a  still  greater  proportion.  If,  when  tillage  has 
served  to  mix  the  marl  well  with  the  soil,  sorrel  should  still  show  to  any 
extent,  it  will  sufficiently  Indicate  that  not  enough  marl  had  been  applied, 
and  that  it  may  be  added  to,  safely  and  profitably.  If  the  nature  of  the 
soil,  its  condition  and  treatment,  and  the  strength  pf  the  marl,  all 
known,  it  would  be  easy  to  direct  the  amount  of  a  suitable  dressing;  but 
without  knowing  these  circumstances,  it  will  be  safest  to  give  not  more 
than  200  or  2£0  bushels  of  marl,  of  say  40  per  ceVlt  to  the  aire  of  worn 
acid  soils.  Twice  or  thrice  as  much  might  he  given,  safely  and  profitably, 
to  newly  cleared    wool   land,   or   well    man  besides   avoiding 

danger,  it  is  more  profitable  to  marl  lightly  at  first  on  weak  lands.     II  a 
farmer  can  carry  out  only  ten  thousand  bushels  of  marl  in  a  year,  he  will 
derive  more  product,  and  confer  a  greater  amount  of  improvement,  by 
■  ling   it  over   forty   acres  of  the  land    intended  for   his  next  crop,  than 

on  twenty  ;  though  the  increase  to  the  acre  would  probably  he  greatest  in 
the  latter  case.  By  the  lighter  dressing,  the  land  of  the  wholejarm  will  he 
marled,  and  be  storing  up  vegetable  matter  for  its  progressive  improvement, 
in  half  the  time  that  it  could  he  marled  at  double  the  rate. 

The  greater  part  of  the  calcareous  earth  applied  at  one  time  cannot  be- 
gin to  act  as  manure  before  several  years  have  passed,  owing  to  the  coarse 
state  of  many  of  the  shells,  and  the  want  of  thoroughly  mixing  them  with 
the  soil.  Therefore,  if  enough  marl  is  applied  to  obtain  its  full  effect  on 
the  first  course  of  crops,  there  will  certainly  be  too  much  afterwards. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  profit  to  be  derived  from  mailing,  though  not  the 
most  apparent  in  the  first  few  j  such  soils  as  are  full  of  wasting 

vegetable  matter.  Here  the  effect  is  mostly  preservative,  and  the  benefit 
and  profit  may  lie  great,  even  though  the  increase  of  crop  maybe  very 
inconsiderable.  Putrescent  manure  laid  on  any  acid  soil,  or  the  natural 
vegetable  cover  of  those  newly  cleared,  without  marl,  would  soon  be  lost, 
and  the  crops  reduced  to  one-half  or  less.  Put  when  marl  is  previously 
applied,  this  waste  of  fertility  is  prevented;  and  the  estimate  of  benefit 
should  not  only  include  the  actual  increase  of  prop  caused  by  marling,  hut 
as  much  more  as  the  amount  of  the  diminution  which  would  otherwise 
have  followed.  Every  intended  clearing  of  woodland,  and  especially  of 
those  under  a  second  growth  of  pines,  ought  to  be  marled  before  cutting 
down  ;  and  it  will  be  still  better,  if  it  can  lie  done  several  years  Inline.  If 
the  application  is  delayed  until  the  new  land  is  brought  under  cultivation, 
though  much  putrescent  matter  will  he  saved,  still  more  must  be  wasted. 
By  using  marl  some  years  before  obtaining  a  crop  from  it,  as  many  more 
successive  growths  of  leaves  will  be  converted  to  useful  manure,  and  fixed 
in  the  soil;  and  the  increased  fertility  will  more  than  compensate  for  the 
delay.  By  such  an  operation,  the  farmer  makes  a  loan  to  the  soil,  at  a  d 
time  for  payment,  but  on  ample  security,  and  at  a  high  rate  of  compound 
interest. 

Some  experienced  cultivators  have  believed  that  the  most  profitable  way 
to  manage  pine  old  fields,  when  cleared  of  their  second  growth,  was  to  cul- 
tivate them  every  year,  until    worn   out— because,  as  they  said,  such  land 


IQg  CALCAREOUS  MAN'UKES-PKAC  1  . 

would  not  last  mucli  longer,  no  matter  how  mildly  treated.  This  opinion, 
which  would  seem  at  first  so  absurd,  and  in  opposition  to  all  the  received 
rules  for  good  husbandry,  is  considerably  supported  by  the  properties 
which  are  here  ascribed  to  such  soils.  When  these  lands  are  first  cut 
down,  an  immense  quantity  of  vegetable  matter  is  accumulated  on  the 
surface,  which,  notwithstanding  its  accompanying  acid  quality,  is  capable 
of  making  two  or  three  crops  nearly  as  good  as  the  land  was  ever  be- 
fore able  to  bring.  But  as  the  soil  has  no  power  to  retain  this  vegetable 
matter,  it  will  begin  rapidly  to  decompose  and  waste,  as  soon  as  exposed 
to  the  sun;  and  will  be  lost,  except  so  much  as  is  caught,  while  escaping, 
by  the  roots  of  growing  crops.  The  previous  application  of  marl,  however, 
would  make  it  profitable  in  these,  as  well  as  other  cases,  to  adopt  a  mild 
and  meliorating  course  of  tillage. 

Less  improvement  will  be  obtained  by  marling  worn  soils  of  the  kind 
called  "  free  light  land,"  than  other  acid  soils  which  originally  produced 
much  more  sparingly.  The  early  productiveness  of  this  kind  of  soil,  and 
its  rapid  exhaustion  by  cultivation,  at  first  view  seem  to  contradict  the  opi- 
nion that  durability  and  the  ease  of  improving  by  putrescent  manures  are 
proportioned  to  the  natural  fertility  of  the  soil.  But  a  full  consideration  of 
the  circumstances  will  show  that  no  such  contradiction  exists. 

In  defining  the  term  natural  fertility,  it  was  stated  that  it  should  not  be 
measured  by  the  earliest  products  of  a  new  soil,  which  might  be  either 
much  reduced,  or  increased,  by'  temporary  causes.  The  early  fertility  of 
free  light  land  is  so  rapidly  destroyed,  ns  to  take  away  all  ground  for  con- 
sidering it  as  fixed  in,  and  belonging  to  the  soil.  It  is  like  the  effect  of 
dung  on  the  same  land  afterwards,  which  throws  out  all  its  benefit  in  the 
course  of  one  or  at  most  two  years,  and  leaves  the  land  as  poor  as  before. 
But  still  it  needs  explanation  why  so  much  productiveness  can  at  fust  be 
exerted  by  any  acid  soil,  as  in  those  described  in  the  11th  experiment.  The 
causes  may  be  found  in  the  following  statement.  These  soils,  and  also  their 
sub-soils,  are  principally  composed  of  coarse  sand,  which  makes  them  of 
more  open  texture  than  best  suits  pine,  and  (when  rich  enough)  more 
favorable  to  other  trees,  the  leaves  of  which  have  no  natural  acid,  and 
therefore  decompose  more  readily.  As  fast  as  the  fallen  leaves  rot,  they 
are  of  course  exposed  to  waste;  but  the  rains  convey  much  of  their  finer 
parts  down  into  the  open  soil,  where  the  less  degree  of  heat  retards  their 
final  decomposition.  Still  this  enriching  matter  is  liable  to  be  further  de- 
composed, and  to  final  waste ;  but  though  continually  wasting,  it  is  also 
continually  added  to  by  the  rotting  leaves  above.  The  shelter  of  the  upper 
coat  of  unrotted  leaves,  and  the  shade  of  the  trees,  cause  the  first  as  well 
as  the  last  stages  of  decomposition  to  proceed  slowly,  and  to  favor  the 
mechanical  process  of  the  products  being  mixed  with  the  soil.  But  there 
■  is  no  chemical  union  of  the  vegetable  matter  with  the  soil.  When  the 
land  is  cleared,  and  opened  by  the  plough,  the  decomposition  of  all  the 
accumulated  vegetable  matter  is  hastened  by  the  increased  action  of  sun 
and  air,  and  in  a  short  time  every  tiling  is  converted  to  food  for  plants.  This 
abundant  supply  suffices  to  produce  two  or  three  fine  crops.  But  now, 
the  most  fruitful  source  of  vegetable  matter  has  been  cut  off — and  the  soil 
is  kept  so  heated  (by  its  open  texture)  as  to  be  unable  to  hold  enriching 
matters,  even  if  they  were  furnished.  The  land  soon  becomes  poor,  and 
must  remain  so,  as  long  as  these  causes  operate,  even  though  cultivated 
under  the  mildest  rotation.  When  the  transient  fertility  of.  such  a  soil  is 
gone,  its  acid  qualities  (which  were  before  concealed  in  some  measure  by 
so  much  enriching  matter,)  become  evident.  Sorrel  and  broom  grass  cover 
the  land,  and  if  allowed  to  stand,  pines  will  then  take  complete  possession, 
because  the  poverty  of  the  soil  leaves  them  no  rival  to  contend  with. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES -PRACTICE.  j  Q9 

Marling  deepens  cultivated  sandy  soils,  even  lower  than  the  plough  may 
have  penetrated.  This  was  an  unexpected  result,  and  when  first  observed 
seemed  scarcely  credible.  But  this  effect  also  Is  a  consequence  of  the 
power  of  calcareous  earth  to  lix  manures.  As  stated  in  the  foregoing 
paragraph,  the  soluble  and  finely  divided  particles  of  rotted  vegetable  mat- 
ters arc  carried  by  the  rains  below  the  soil  ;  hut  as  there  is  no  calcareous 
earth  there  to  lix  them,  they  must  again  rise  in  a  gaseous  form,  after  their 
last  decomposition,  unless  previously  taken  up  by  growing  plants.  But 
after  the  soil  is  marled,  calcareous  as  well  as  putrescent  matter  is  carried 
down  by  the  rains  as  far  as  the  soil  is  open  enough  for  it  to  pass.  This 
will  always  he  as  deep  as  the  ploughing  lias  been,  and  somewhat  deeper 
in  loose  earth;  and  the  chemical  union  formed  between  these  different 
substances  serves  to  fix  both,  and  thus  increases  the  depth  of  the  soil. 
This  effect  is  very  different  from  the  deepening  of  a  soil  by  letting  the 
plough  run  into  the  barren  sub-soil.  If,  by  this  mechanical  process,  a  soil 
of  only  three  inehes  is  increased  to  six,  as  much  as  it  gains  in  depth,  it 
loses  in  richness.  But  when  a  marled  soil  is  deepened  gradually,  its  dark 
color  and  apparent  richness  are  tacri  a  ed,  as  well  as  its  depth.  Formerly, 
single-horse  ploughs  were  used  to  break  all  my  acid  soils,  and  even  these 
would  often  turn  up  sub-soil.  The  average  depth  of  soil  on  old  land  did 
not  exceed  three  inches,  nor  two  on  the  newly  cleared.  Even  before  marl- 
ing was  commenced,  my  ploughing  had  generally  sunk  into  the  sub-soil — 
and  since  1825,  most  of  this  originally  thin  soil  has  required  three  mules, 
or  two  good  horses  to  a  plough,  to  break  the  necessary  depth.  The  soil  is 
now  from  six  to  eight  inches  deep  generally,  from  the  joint  operation  of 
marling  and  deepening  the  ploughing  a  little  in  the  beginning  of  every 
course  of  crops :  and  to  that  depth,  or  very  nearly,  the  land  is  now  ploughed 
whenever  preparing  for  corn,  or  for  wheat  on  clover. 

Since  marling  was  begun,  the  deepening  of  the  soil  has  much  more 
i  than  followed  the  deepening  of  the  ploughing.  How 
destructive  to  the  power  of  soil  this  present  depth  of  ploughing  would  have 
been,  without  marling,  may  be  inferred  from  the  continued  decrease  of  the 
crop,  through  four  successive  courses  of  a  very  mild  rotation,  on  the  spot 
kept  without  marl  ifi  experiment  10.  Yet  the  depth  of  ploughing  there 
did  not  exceed  six  inches,  and  depths  of  nine  and  even  twelve  inches  were 
tried,  without  injury,  on  parts  of  the  adjacent  marled  land. 

This  remarkable  and  valuable  effect  of  marling,  in  deepening  the  soil, 
is  increased  in  action  by  the  sub-soil  being  sandy,  which  is  commonly 
deemed  the  worst  kind  of  sub-soil.  Land  having  a  clay  sub-soil,  which  is 
known  in  common  parlance  as  land  with  "a  good  foundation,"  is  almost 
universally  prized ;  and  that  impervious  sub-soil  is  supposed  necessary  to 
prevent  the  manure  and  the  rains  from  sinking,  and  being  lost  And  such 
maybe  among  the  disadvantages,  before  marline,  of  poor  land  having  a 
sandy  sub-soil.  But  not  so  alter  marling.  While  the  open  texture  of 
sucha  sub-soil  permits  so  much  of  the  water  as  is  superfluous  and  injurious 
to  sink  and  disappear,  and  the  combined  manures  to  sink  enough  to  deepen 
the  soil,  (by  converting  barren  sub-soil  to  productive  soil,  i  the  attractive 
of  the  calcareous  earth,  for  both  putrescent  mutter  and  moisture,  w  ill  much 
more  effectually  prevent  either  from  being  lost  to  the  s  til,  than  the  mei  hani- 
cal  obstruction  of  a  day  siil>-.-.oil.     (beat  a  lions  entertained 

by  most  farmers  to  sandy  sub-soils,  or  to  w  ml  any 

foundation,"  l  would  decidedly  prefer  such  to  lam  in  impervious 

clay  sub-soil— supposing  both  to  be  equally  barren.  The  subjects  of  all 
my  experiments  stated  as  made  on  acid  sandy  loam.-,  bad  also  sub-soils  of 
yellow  and  barren  sand;  and  on  such  lands  have  been  made  my-greatest 
and  most  profitable  improvements  by  marling.  However,  a  sub-soil  (and 
11 


110 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 


also  a  soil)  more  of  medium  texture,  would  no  doubt  have  been  as  much 
better  than  the  very  sandy,  as  the  latter  was  better  than  the  very  stiff  and 
impervious  clay  sub-soils. 

Besides  the  general  benefit  which  marling  causes  equally  to  all  crops, 
by  making  the  soils  they  grow  on  richer  and  more  productive,  there  are 
other  particular  benefits  which  affect  some  plants  more  than  others.  For 
example,  marling  serves  to  make  soils  warmer,  and  thereby  hastens  the 
ripening  of  every  crop,  more  than  would  take  place  on  the  like  soils,  if 
made  equally  productive  by  other  than  calcareous  manures.  This  quality 
of  mailed  land  ts  highly  important  to  cotton,  as  our  summers  are  not  long 
enough  to  mature  the  later  pods.  Wheat  also  derives  especial  benefit  from 
the  warmth  thus  added  to  the  soil.  It  is  enabled  better  to  withstand  the 
severe  cold  of  winter ;  and  even  the  short  time  by  which  its  ripening  is 
forwarded  by  marling,  serves  very  much  to  lessen  the  danger  of  that  crop 
from  the  worst  of  all  its  diseases,  the  rust.  Wheat  also  profits  by  the  ab- 
sorbent power  of  marled  land,  (by  which  sands  acquire,  to  some  extent, 
the  best  qualities  of  clays,)  though  less  so  than  clover  and  other  grasses 
that  flourish  best  in  a  moist  climate.  Indian  corn  does  not  need  more  time 
for  maturing  than  our  summers  afford,  (except  on  the  poorest  land,)  and 
can  sustain  much  drought  without  injury ,  and  therefore  is  less  aided  by 
these  qualities  of  marled  land.  Most  (if  not  all)  the  different  plants  of  the 
pea  kind,  and  all  the  varieties  of  clover,  derive  such  remarkable  benefit 
from  marling,  that  it  must  be  caused  by  some  peculiarity  in  the  nature  of 
those  plants.  Perhaps  a  large  portion  of  calcareous  earth  is  necessary  as 
part  of  their  food,  to  aid  in  the  formation  of  the  substance  of  these  plants,  as 
well  as  to  preserve  their  healthy  existence. 

On  acid  soils,  without  heavy  manuring,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  raise  red 
clover  ;  and  even  with  every  aid  from  putrescent  manure,  the  crop  will  be 
both  uncertain  and  unprofitable.  The  recommendation  of  this  grass,  as 
part  of  a  general  system  of  cultivation  and  improvement,  by  the  author  of 
'  Arator,'  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  his  improvements  were  made  on  soils 
far  better  than  such  as  are  general.  Almost  every  zealous  cultivator  and 
improver  (in  prospect)  of  acid  soil  has  been  induced  to  attempt  clover  cul- 
ture, either  by  the  recommendations  of  writers  on  this  grass,  or  by  the 
success  witnessed  on  better  constituted  soils  elsewhere.  The  utmost  that 
has  been  gained,  by  any  of  these  numerous  efforts,  has  been  sometimes  to 
obtain  one,  or  at  most  two  mowings,  of  middling  clover,  on  some  very 
rich  lot,  which  had  been  prepared  in  the  most  perfect  manner  by  the  pre- 
vious cultivation  of  tobacco.  Even  in  such  situations,  this  degree  of  suc- 
cess could  only  be  obtained  by  the  concurrence  of  the  most  favorable  sea- 
sons. Severe  cold,  and  sudden  alternations  of  temperature  in  winter  and 
spring,  and  the  spells  of  hot  and  dry  weather  which  we  usually  have  in 
summer,  were  alike  fatal  to  the  growth  of  clover,  on  so  unfriendly  a  soil. 
The  few  examples  of  partial  success  never  served  to  pay  for  the  more  fre- 
quent failures  and  losses ;  and  a  few  years'  trial  would  convince  the  most 
ardent,  or  the  most  obstinate  advocate  for  the  clover  husbandry,  that  its 
introduction  on  the  great  body  of  land  in  lower  Virginia  was  absolutely 
impossible.  Still  the  general  failure  was  by  common  consent  attributed  to 
any  thing  but  the  true  cause.  There  was  always  some  reason  offered  for 
each  particular  failure,  sufficient  to  cause  it,  and  but  for  which,  (it  was  sup- 
posed,) a  crop  might  have  been  raised.  Either  the  young  plants  were  killed 
by  freezing  soon  after  first  springing  from  the  seed — or  a  drought  occurred 
when  the  crop  was  most  exposed  to  the  sun,  by  reaping  the  sheltering  crop 
of  wheat — or  native  and  hardy  weeds  overran  the  crop — and  all  such  dis- 
asters were  supposed  to  be  increased  in  force,  and  rendered  generally  fatal. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES -FHACTU'E.  1  (  | 

by  our  sandy  soil,  and  hot  and  dry  summers.  Hut  after  the  true  evil,  the 
acid  nature  of  the  soil,  is  removed  by  mnrling,  clover  ceases  to  be  a  feeble 
exotic.  It  is  at  once  naturalize  I  cm  0111  soil,  and  is  able  to  contend  with 
rival  plants,  and  in  undergo  every  severity  and  change  ol  season,  as  safely 
as  our  crop's  of  corn  and  wheat—  and  offers  to  our  acceptance  the  fruition 
of  those  hopes  ni  profit  and  Improvement  from  clover,  with  which  pre- 
viously we  had  only  been  deluded. 

After  much  waste  of  seed  and  labor,  and  years  of  disappointed  efforts, 
I  abandoned  clover  as  utterly  hopeless,  But  alter  mailing  the  fields  on 
which  the  raising  of  clover  had  hern  vainly  attempted,  there  arose  from  its 
scattered  and  feeble  remains,  a  growth  which  served  to  prove  that  its  cul- 
tivation would  then  be  safe  and  profitable  It  has  since  been  gradually  ex- 
tended over  all  the  fields.  It  will  stand  well,  and  maintain  a  healthy  growth 
on  the  poorest  marled  land  ;  hut  the  crop  is  too  scanty  for  mowing,  or  per- 
haps for  profit  of  any  kind,  on  most  poor  sandy  soils,  unless  aided  by  gyp- 
sum. Newry  cleared  lands  yield  better  clover  than  the  old,  though  the 
latter  may  produce  as  heavy  grain  crops.  The  remarkable  crops  of  clover 
raised  on  very  poor  clay  soils,  after  marling,  have  been  already  described. 
This  grass,  even  without  gypsum,  and  still  more  if  aided  by  that  manure, 
will  add  greatly  to  the  improving  power  of  marl;  but  it  may  do  as  much 
harm  as  service,  if  we  greedily  take  from  the  soil  nearly  all  of  the  supply 
of  putrescent  matter  which  it  affords. 

Some  other  plants,  less  welcome  than  clover,  are  equally  favored  by 
marling.  Unless  both  the  tillage  and  the  rotation  of  crops  be  good,  green- 
sward (poa  pratensis,)  blue  grass  (poa  compressa,)  wire  grass  (cynodon 
dactylon,)  and  partridge  pea  (vicia  tatwa,)  will  soon  increase  so  as  to  be 
not  less  impediments  to  bad  tillage,  or  to  the  grain  crops,  than  mani- 
fest evidences  of  an  entire  change  in  the  character  and  power  of  the  soil. 

The  power  of  calcareous  manures  is  still  more  strongly  shown  in  the 
eradication  of  certain  plants,  as  has  been  before  incidentally  mentioned. 
Sorrel  (runiex  acelosus,)  is  the  most  plentiful  and  injurious  weed  on  the 
cultivated  acid  soils  of  lower  Virginia;  an  unmixed  growth  of  poverty 
grass  {aristida  gracilis  and  a.  dichotoma)  is  spread  over  all  such  lands,  a 
year  after  being  left  at  rest ;  at  a  somewhat  later  time  broom-grass  (an- 
dropogon)  of  different  kinds  covers  them  completely ;  and  if  suffered  to 
remain  unbroken  a  few  years  longer  a  thick  growth  of  young  pines  will 
succeed.  But  as  soon  as  such  land  is  sufficiently  and  properly  marled, 
there  remains  no  longer  the  peculiar  disposition  or  even  power  of  the  soil 
to  produce  these  plants.  Sorrel  is  totally  removed,  and  poverty  grass  no 
more  is  to  be  found,  where  both  in  their  turn  before  had  entire  possession. 
The  appearance  of  a  single  lull  i  f  either  of  Ihese  plants  is  enough  to  prove 
that  the  acid  quality  of  the  soil  on  that  spot  still  remains,  and  that  either 
more  marl,  or  more  complete  intermixture,  is  still  wanting.  Thus,  the  pre- 
sence of  either  of  these  plants  is  the  most  unerring  as  well  as  most  conve- 
nient and  ready  indication  of  a  soil  wanting  calcareous  manure.  The  most 
laborious  analyses,  by  the  most  able  chemists,  directed  to  ascertain  the  dif- 
ferent characters  of  soils  in  this  respect,  are  not  to  be  compared  for  accu- 
racy to  the  tests  furnished  by  either  the  appearance  or  total  absence  of 
sorrel  or  poverty  grass.  In  regard  to  broom-grass  and  pines,  the  change 
is  not  so  sudden,  nor  complete;  but  still  the  soil  will  have  been  made  mani- 
festly unfriendly  to  both.  Some  striking  apparent  exceptions  to  these  rules 
have  caused  some  persons  to  doubt  of  their  correctness;  when  full  exa- 
mination of  the  circumstances  would  have  confirmed  my  positions.  I  have 
known  a  mere  top-dressing  of  marl,  left  for  some  years  on  a  worn-out  old 
field,  to  eradicate  the  before  general  srrowth  of  broom-grass,  and  substitute 


112 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE. 


a  cover  of  annual  weeds.  Yet  on  other  tillage  land,  after  marling  and  one 
crop  of  wheat  on  fallow,  I  have  seen  the  growth  of  broom-grass  return, 
and  seemingly  with  greater  than  its  former  vigor.  But  this  return  and 
vigor  were  but  temporary,  and  the  land  is  now  comparatively  free  from  this 
injurious  weed.  When  soil,  already  filled  with  its  seeds,  is  very  imperfectly 
mixed  with  marl  by  ploughing,  these  is  nothing  to  prevent  the  broom-grass 
springing  from  all  the  spots  not  touched  by  the  marl,  whether  these  spots 
be  above  or  below  or  between  unmixed  masses  of  marl.  And  the  growth 
being  thin  and  scattered,  and  not  covering  the  surface  completely  as  for- 
merly, will  cause  the  separate  tufts  of  broom-grass  to  be  much  more  luxu- 
riant, and  greater  impediments  to  tillage,  than  previously.  But  the  next 
course  of  tillage  will  serve  to  mix  the  marl  and  soil  completely,  and  remove 
all  appearance  of  marl  being  favorable  instead  of  destructive  to  broom- 
grass.  Sorrel  may  often  be  seen  growing  out  of  the  heaps  of  pure  marl, 
dropped  from  the  carts  on  acid  land,  and  the  heaps  left  thus,  unspread, 
through  a  summer.  But  this  apparent  and  very  striking  exception  may 
be  fully  explained.  The  heaps  of  marl,  thus  left,  had  not  as  yet  by  any  in- 
termixture affected  the  original  composition  of  the  soil  below  ;  and  the 
seeds  or  roots  of  sorrel  therein  were  therefore  free  to  spring  and  grow ; 
and  the  great  hardiness  and  remarkable  vital  power  of  that  plant  enabled  it 
to  rise  through  the  (to  it)  dead  matter  and  great  obstruction  of  several 
inches  thickness  of  pure  marl  above.  On  examining  the  roots  of  sorrel 
thus  growing  out  of  marl,  it  will  be  seen  clearly,  and  invariably,  that  they 
drew  all  their  support  from  the  still  acid  soil  below,  and  merely  passed 
through  the  marl,  without  drawing  any  thing  therefrom. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

RECAPITULATION  OF  EFFECTS,  AND  DIRECTIONS  FOR  PRACTICE  CONTINUED. 

Proposition  5 — continued. 

If  the  foregoing  views  may  be  confided  in,  the  general  course  most  pro- 
per to  pursue  in  using  calcareous  manures  may  thence  be  deduced  without 
difficulty.  But  as  I  have  found,  since  the  publication  of  the  previous  edition 
of  this  essay,  that  many  persons  still  ask  for  more  special  directions  to  guide 
their  operations,  and  as  all  such  difficulties  may  not  be  entirely  obviated 
even  by  the  more  full  details  now  given,  1  will  here  add  the  following  di- 
rections, at  the  risk  of  their  being  considered,  superfluous.  These  direc- 
tions, like  all  the  foregoing  reasoning,  may  apply  generally,  if  not  entirely, 
to  the  use  of  all  kinds  of  calcareous  manures,  and  to  soils  in  various  re- 
gions; but  to  avoid  too  wide  a  range,  I  shall  consider  them  as  applied  par- 
ticularly to  the  poor  lands  of  the  tide-water  region,  and  addressed  to  per- 
sons who  are  just  commencing  their  improvement  by  means  of  the  fossil 
shells  or  marl  of  the  same  region. 

As  the  cheapest  mode  of  furnishing  vegetable  matter  to  land  intended  to 
be  marled  and  cultivated,  no  grazing  should  be  permitted.  It  is  best  to 
put  the  marl  on  the  grass  previous  to  ploughing  the  field  for  corn,  as  the 
early  effect  of  this  manure  is  greatest  when  it  has  been  placed  in  contact 
with  the  vegetable  matter.  But  this  advantage  is  not  so  great  as  to  induce 
the  ploughing  to  be  delayed,  or  to  stop  the  marling  after  that  operation. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES    PRACTICE.  |  ]  3 

W'lu'M  the  marl  is  spread  upon  the  ploughed  surface,  it  can  be  bettei  mixed 
with  the  snii  by  the  cultivation  ol  the  crop;  and  this  advantage  in  some 
measure  compensates  for  the  Ins*  of  that  which  would  have  been  dbtained 
from  an  earlier  application  oq  the  sod     If  marl  is  ploughed  in,  it  should 

net  !"■  bo  deeply  as  t< •  prevent  its  being  mixed  with  the  soil,  s|>eedily  and 
thorou-ilily,  by  the  subsequent  tillage.  To  make  sure  of  equal  operation, 
the  marl  should  be  spaead  regularly  over  the  surface.  From  neglect  in 
this  respect,  a  flroajilnn  of  marl  is  often  too  thin  in  many  places  to  have  its 
proper  effect,  and  In  others,  so  thick  as  to  prove  injurious.  Hence  it  is. 
that  marl-burnt  stalks  of  corn  and  tufts  of  sorrel  arc  sometimes  seen  on 
the  same  acre. 

After  the  first  year,  the  farmer  may  generally  marl  fast  enough  to  keep 
ahead  of  his  cultivation ;  and  even  though  be  should  reduce  the  space  of 
his  tillage  to  one-half,  it  will  be  best  for  him  not  to  put  an  acre  in  corn  with- 
out its  being  mailed.  Fifty  acres  can  generally  be  both  marled  and  tilled, 
as  cheaply  as  one  hundred  can  be  tilled  without  marling  i  and  the  fifty  with 
marl  will  produce  as  much  as  the  hundred  without,  in  the  first  course  of 
crops,  and  much  more  afterwards. 

That  rotation  of  crops  which  gives  most  vegetable  matter  to  the  soil,  is 
best  to  aid  the  effects  of  marl  recently  applied.  The  four-shift  rotation  is 
convenient  in  this  respect,  because  two  or  three  years  of  rest  may  be  given 
in  each  course  of  the  rotation  at  first,  upon  the  poorest  land  ;  and  the  num- 
ber of  exhausting  crops  may  be  increased,  first  to  two,  then  to  three  in  the 
rotation,  as  the  soil  advances  to  its  highest  state  of  productiveness. 

After  marling,  clover  should  be  sown,  and  gypsum  on  the  clover.  On 
pom.  though  marled  land,  of  course  only  a  poor  growth  of  clover  can  be 
expected;  but  wherever  other  manures  are  given,  and  especially  if  gyp- 
sum is  found  to  act  well,  the  crop  of  clover  becomes  a  most  important  part 
of  the  improvement  by  marling.  Without  clover,  and  without  returning  the 
greater  part  of  the  early  product  to  the  soil,  the  greatest  value  of  marling  will 
not  be  seen.  A  small  proportion  of  the  clover  may  be  used  as  food  for  cattle ; 
and  in  a  low  years  even  this  small  share  w  ill  far  exceed  all  the  grass  that  the 
fields  furnished  before  marling  and  the  limitation  of  grazing.  What  is  at 
first  objected  to  as  lessening  the  food  of  grazing  stock,  and  their  products, 
within  a  few  years  becomes  the  source  of  a  far  more  abundant  supply. 

During  the  first  few  years  of  marling,  but  little  attention  can  (or  indeed 
ought  to)  be  given  to  making  putrescent  manures,  because  the  soil  much 
more  needs  calcareous  manure— and  three  or  four  acres  may  generally  be 
supplied  with  the  latter,  as  cheaply  as  one  with  the  former.  But  putrescent 
manures  cannot  any  where  be  used  to  so  much  advantage  as  upon  poor 
soils  made  calcareous;  and  no  farmer  can  make  and  apply  vegetable  mat- 
ter as  manure  to  greater  profit  than  he  who  has  marled  his  pour  fields,  and 
can  then  withdraw  his  labor  from  applying  the  more  to  the  less  valuable 
manure.  After  the  farm  has  been  marled  over  at  the  light  rate  recom- 
mended at  first,  every  effort  should  be  made  to  accumulate  and  apply  vege- 
table manures;  and  with  their  gradual  extension  over  the  fields,  a  second 
application  of  marl  may  he  made,  making  the  whole  quantity,  in  both  the 
first  and  second  mailing,  500  or  000  bushels  to  the  acre,  or  even  more; 
which  quantity  would  have  been  hurtful  if  given  at  first,  but  which  will  now 
be  not  only  harmless,  but  necessary  to  fix  and  retain  so  much  putrescent 
and  nutritive  matter  in  the  soil. 

The  above  injunction,  that  -every  effort  should  be  made  to  accumulate 
and  apply  vegetable  manures,"  should  not  be  limited,  as  most  new  improvers 
would  be  apt  to  do,  to  the  mere  economical  use  of  the  vegetable  materials 
for  manure  furnished  by  the  crops,  and   those  only  as  prepared   by  being 


1  |4  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 

first  used  as  litter  for  animals.  Not  only  these,  but  every  other  vegetable 
and  putrescent  material  that  is  accessible  should  be  saved  and  applied,  and 
even  without  any  intermediate  process  of  preparation,  and  at  any  time  of 
the  year,  and  state  of  the  fields,  provided  no  growing  or  commencing  crop 
be  thereby  molested.  Surplus  straw,  not  needed  for  food  or  litter,  is  most 
valuable  and  cheaply  applied  as  top-dressing  to  clover  or  other  grass ;  though 
it  is  an  inconvenient  and  troublesome  manure  if  immediately  ploughed 
under.  Leaves  from  the  woods  of  the  farm  may  be  used  most  profitably 
in  the  same  manner,  to  the  full  extent  of  the  resources  offered.  And  though 
the  manuring  operations  on  the  Coggins  Point  farm  have  not  yet  been  ex- 
tended beyond  the  last  named  putrescent  material,  it  is  believed  that  other 
and  abundant  sources  yet  remain  untried  and  unproductive  on  that  and 
most  other  farms,  and  to  use  which  would  be  but  a  waste  of  labor  or 
money,  if  in  advance  of  marling.  Amgng  the  most  abundant  of  such  ma- 
terials, may  be  mentioned  marsh  grasses  and  marsh  or  pond  mud  ;  and  also 
the  purchase  of  rich  alimentary  manures  from  towns,  to  be  carried  by  land 
or  by  water  carriage  to  much  greater  distances  than  has  yet  been  done, 
or  can  be  afforded  to  be  done,  on  other  lands.  Even  saw-dust  and  spent 
tanner's  bark,  which,  because  of  their  insolubility,  are  generally  deemed  of 
no  value  as  manures,  would  form  important  and  valuable  materials  for 
fertilization,  in  situations  where  they  can  be  obtained  cheaply  and  in  great 
quantity.  Mixing  these  or  other  insoluble  vegetable  substances  with  rich 
putrescent  matters,  and  still  more  if  with  some  alkaline  matter  also,  would 
render  them  soluble,  and  convert  them  to  food  for  plants. 

But  putting  aside  the  consideration  of  all  such  unusual  or  untried  re- 
sources and  operations  for  additional  fertilization,  and  limiting  the  present 
view  merely  to  the  ordinary  materials  furnished  by  every  farm,  the  progress 
and  profit  of  improvement  by  such  means  only,  after  marling,  will  be  greater 
than  will  be  at  first  believed  by  most  cultivators  of  acid  soils,  not  yet  marled 
or  limed.  If,  on  such  soils,  the  general  course  above  advised  be  pursued, 
(and  using  merely  the  resources  of  the  farm  after  marling,)  the  products  of 
crops  on  all  the  marled  land  usually  will  be  doubled  in  the  first  course  of 
the  rotation — often  in  the  first  crop  immediately  following  the  marling;  and 
the  original  product  may  be  expected  to  be  tripled  by  the  third  return  of 
the  rotation.  And  this  may  be  from  merely  applying  marl  in  sufficient 
(and  not  excessive)  quantities,  and  giving  the  land  two  years  rest  in  four 
without  grazing.  But  on  the  parts  having  the  aid  of  farm-yard  and  other 
putrescent  manures,  and  of  clover,  still  greater  returns  may  be  obtained. 

When  such  statements  as  these  are  made,  the  question  naturally  occurs 
to  the  reader,  "  Has  the  writer  himself  met  with  so  much  success,  and  what 
has  been  the  actual  result  of  his  labors  in  general,  in  the  business  so 
strongly  recommended  !"  This  question  I  have  no  right  to  shrink  from, 
although  the  answer  to  be  given  fully  will  be  objectionable,  from  the  ego- 
tism inseparable  from  such  details,  which  are  certainly  not  worth  being 
thus  presented  to  public  notice,  and  which  are  called  for  only  because  silence 
on  this  head  might  be  considered  as  operating  against  the  general  tenor  of 
this  essay.  It  will  be  sufficient  here  to  state  generally,  that  my  average 
profits  from  marling,  and  the  increased  fertility  derived  from  it,  have  not 
been  as  great  as  are  promised  above,  nor  such  as  might  be  expected  from 
the  most  successful  experiments  of  which  the  results  have  been  reported — 
and  for  these  reasons.  1st.  The  greater  part  of  my  land  was  not  of  soil 
the  best  adapted  to  be  improved  by  marling.  2d.  Having  at  first  every 
thing  to  learn,  and  to  prove  by  trial,  much  of  my  labor  was  lost  uselessly, 
or  spent  in  excessive  and  injurious  applications.  3d.  The  fitness  given  to 
the  soil  by  marl  to  produce  clover  was  not  found  out  until  after  that  best 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE.  l  15 

auxiliary  to  improvement  ought  to  have  been  in  full  use.  4th.  From  the 
want  of  labor  and  capital  to  use  both  calcareous  and  putrescent  manures, 
the  collecting  and  applying  of  the  latter  were  almost  entirely  neglected  as 
longasthere  was  full  employment  in  marling.  And,  5th.  Thai  general  bad 
practical  management  which  I  have  to  admit  baa  marked  all  my  business, 
has  of  course  also  affected  injuriously  this  important  branch— though  in 
a  less  degree,  because  it  was  as  much  as  possible  (until  about  1826,)  under 
my  personal  and  close  attention.  With  all  these  drawbacks  to  complete 
success,  I  am  able  to  state  the  following  general  results  of  my  operations. 
Omitting  the  land  on  I  loggina  Point  farm  not  susceptible  of  any  considera- 
ble or  profitable  improvement  from  marHng,  the  great  body  of  the  farm 
was  tripled  in  productive  power  from  181s,  when  my  first  experiment  was 
made,  to  1834  Particular  bodies  of  soil  now  produce  four-fold  the  former 
amount  without  any  Other  kind  of  manure;  and  the  whole  tarm,  including 
the  parts  least  improved  as  well  as  the  most,  and  allowing  for  the  increase 
of  extent  of  surface,  will  now  make  more  than  double  of  its  best  product 
before  marling.  Statements  on  this  head,  more  in  detail,  will  be  given  in 
the  Appendix. 

With  all  the  increase  of  products  that  I  have  ascribed  to  marling,  the 
heaviest  amounts  stated  may  appear  inconsiderable  to  formers  who  till  soils 
more  favored  by  nature.  Corn  yielding  twenty-live  or  thirty  bushels  to 
the  acre,  is  doubled  by  many  natural  soils  in  the  western  states  ;  and  ten 
or  twelve  bushels  of  wheat,  will  still  less  compare  with  the  product  of  the 
best  lime-stone  clay  land.  The  cultivators  of  our  poor  region,  however, 
know  that  such  products,  without  any  future  increase,  would  be  a  prodi- 
gious addition  to  their  present  gains.  Still  it  is  doubtful  whether  these  re- 
wards are  sufficiently  high  to  tempt  many  of  my  countrymen  speedily  to 
accept  them.  The  opinions  of  many  farmers  have  been  so  long  fixed,  and 
their  habits  are  so  uniform  and  unvarying,  that  it  is  difficult  to  excite  them 
to  adopt  any  new  plan  of  improvement,  except  by  promises  of  profits  so 
great,  that  an  uncommon  share  of  credulity  would  be  necessary  to  expect 
their  fulfilment.  The  net  profits  of  marling,  if  estimated  at  twenty  or  even 
fifty  per  cent,  per  annum,  on  the  expense,  for  ever — or  the  assurance,  by 
good  evidence,  of  doubling  the  crops  of  a  farm  in  ten  years  or  less — will 
scarcely  attract  the  attention  of  those  who  would  embrace  without  any 
scrutiny,  a  plan  that  promised  five  times  as  much.  Hall's  scheme  for  cul- 
tivating corn  was  a  stimulus  exactly  suited  to  their  lethargic  state ;  and 
that  impudent  Irish  impostor  found  many  steady  old-fashioned  farmers  will- 
ing to  pay  for  his  directions  for  making  live  hundred  barrels  of  corn  with- 
out ploughing,  and  with  the  hand  labor  of  two  men  only. 

The  products  and  profits  derived  from  the  use  of  marl  as  presented  in 
the  preceding  pages,  considerable  as  they  are,  have  been  kept  down,  or 
lessened  in  amount,  by  my  then  want  of  experience,  and  ignorance  of  the 
danger  of  injudicious  applications.  My  errors  may  at  least  enable  others 
to  avoid  similar  losses,  and  thereby  to  reach  equal  profits  with  half  the  ex- 
pense of  time  and  labor.  But  are  we  to  consider  even  tl  known 
increase  of  product  that  has  been  yet  gained  in  a  few  years  after  marling, 
as  showing  the  full  amount  of  improvement  and  profit  to  be  deri 
tainly  not ;  and  if  we  may  venture  to  leave  the  sure  ground  of  practical  ex- 
perience, and  look  forward  to  what  is  promised  by  the  theory  of  the  opera- 
tion of  calcareous  manures,  we  must  anticipate  future  crops  far  exceeding 
what  have  yet  been  obtained.  To  this,  the  ready  objection  may  be  oppos- 
ed, that  the  sandiness  of  the  greater  part  of  our  lands  will  always  prevent 
their  being  raised  to  a  high  state  of  productiveness— and  particularly,  that 
no  care  nor  improvement  can  make  heavy  crops  of  wheat  on  such  soils. 


116  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE. 

This  very  general  opinion  is  far  from  being  correct ;  and  as  the  error  is 
important,  it  may  be  useful  to  offer  some  evidence  in  support  of  the  great 
value  to  which  sandy  soils  may  arrive. 

We  are  so  accustomed  to  find  sandy  soils  poor,  that  it  is  difficult  for  us 
to  connect  with  them  the  idea  of  fertility,  and  still  less  of  durability.  Yet 
British  agriculturists,  who  were  acquainted  with  clays  and  clay  loams  of 
as  great  value,  and  as  well  managed  under  tillage,  as  any  in  the  world, 
speak  in  still  higher  terms  of  certain  soils  which  are  even  more  sandy  than 
most  of  ours.  For  example—"  Rich  sandy  soils,  however,"  says  Sir  John 
Sinclair,  "  such  as  those  of  Frodsham  in  Cheshire,  are  invaluable.  They 
are  cultivated  at  a  moderate  expense ;  and  at  all  times  have  a  dry  sound- 
ness, accompanied  by  moisture,  which  secures  excellent  crops,  even  in  the 
driest  summers."*  Robert  Brown  (one  of  the  very  few  who  have  deserved 
the  character  of  being  both  able  writers  and  successful  practical  cultiva- 
tors) says— "  Perhaps  a  true  sandy  loam,  incumbent  on  a  sound  sub-soil, 
is  the  most  valuable  of  all  soils."f  Arthur  Young,  when  describing  the 
soils  of  France,  in  his  agricultural  survey  of  that  country,  in  several  places 
speaks  in  the  highest  terms  of  different  bodies  of  light  or  sandy  soils,  of 
which  the  following  example,  of  the  extensive  district  which  he  calls  the 
plain  of  the  Garonne,  will  be  enough  to  quote :  "  It  is  entered  about  Crei- 
sensac,  and  improves  all  the  way  to  Montauban  and  Toulouse,  where  it  is 

one  of  the  finest  bodies  of  fertile  soil  that  can  any  where  be  seen." 

"  Through  all  this  plain,  wherever  the  soil  is  found  excellent,  it  consists  us- 
ually of  a  deep  mellow  friable  sandy  loam,  with  moisture  sufficient  for  any 
thing;  much  of  it  is  calcareous."]:  The  soil  of  Belgium,  so  celebrated  for 
its  high  improvement  and  remarkable  productiveness,  is  mostly  sandy. 
The  author  last  quoted,  in  another  work  describes  a  body  of  land  in  the 
county  of  Norfolk,  as  "  one  of  the  finest  tracts  that  is  any  where  to  be 

seen" "  a  fine,  deep,  mellow,  putrid  sandy  loam,  adhesive  enough  to 

fear  no  drought,  and  friable  enough  to  strain  off  superfluous  moisture,  so 
that  all  seasons  suit  it ;  from  texture  free  to  work,  and  from  chemical  quali- 
ties sure  to  produce  in  luxuriance  whatever  the  industry  of  man  commits 
to  its  friendly  bosom."  5  Mr.  Coke,  the  great  Norfolk  farmer,  made  on  the 
average  24  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre,  on  an  estate  of  as  sand}'  soil  as 
our  Southampton,  (where  probably  a  general  average  of  two  bushels  could 
not  be  obtained,  if  general  wheat  culture  were  attempted)— and  many  other 
farms  in  Norfolk  yielded  much  better  wheat  than  Mr.  Coke's  in  1804,  when 
Young's  survey  was  made.  Several  farms  averaged  3G  bushels,  and  one 
of  40  is  stated;  and  the  general  average  of  the  county  was  24  bushels.y 
Yet  the  county  of  Norfolk  was  formerly  pronounced  by  Charles  II.  to  be 
only  fit  "  to  cut  up  into  strips,  to  make  roads  of  for  the  balance  of  the 
kingdom"— and  that  sportive  description  expressed  strongly  the  sandy  na- 
ture of  the  soil,  as  well  as  its  then  state  of  poverty. 

Because  certain  qualities  of  poor  clay  soils  (particularly  their  absorbent 
power)  make  them  better  than  poor  sands  for  producing  wheat,  we  most 
strangely  attach  a  value  to  the  stiffness  and  intractability  of  the  former. 
Yet  if  all  the  absorbent  quality  and  productive  power  of  clay  could  be 
given  to  sand,  surely  the  latter  would  be  the  more  valuable  in  proportion 
to  its  being  friable  and  easy  to  cultivate.  The  causes  of  all  the  valuable 
qualities  and  productive  power  of  the  rich  sands  that  have  been  referred 
to,  are  only  calcareous  and  putrescent  manures,  and  depth  of  soil :   and  if 

"  Code  of  Agriculture,  p.  12. 

t  Brown's  Treatise  on  Agriculture,  p.  218,  of  "Agriculture"  in  Edin.  Ency. 

t  Young's  To.ir  in  Fiance. 

§  Young's  Survey  of  Norfolk,  p,  4. 

||  Young's  Survey  ol  Norfolk,  p.  300  to  304. 


CAIJ  I  ICE.  J  17 

the  same  means  can  "be  used,  our  now  poor  sand  ideas 

productive  and  valuabfe.  1  do  not  mean  t<>  assert  that  the  most  highly  im- 
proved sandy  soils  can  produce  aa  muoh  wheat  as  the  best  Way  soils ;  but 

they  will   not  fall   so  far   short  as   to  prevent   their  being  the  mi 

.  for  wheat  as  well  as  othei  easily 

cultivated,  and  less  liable  i  management. 

The  greatest  objection  to  tl  ly  lands  of  lower  Virginia,  as 

subjects  lor  improvement  by  calcareous  manures,  is  not  their  excess  of 
sand,  nor  yet  their  poverty— great  as  may  be  both  I  —  but 

it  is  the  ahaUbumeae  of  the  poor  and  sandy  soil.  The  natural  soil  6f  a 
large  portion  of  these  lands,  before  cultivation,  is  not  more  than  from  one 
to  two  inches  deep,  lying  on  a  barren  sub-soil  of  sand.     Now   suppose 

-hallow  soil  to  be  doubled   or  even  tripled  in  fertility  by  marling,  or  a 
productive  power  of  'J  or  '.'  bushels  of  corn  be  raise!  to  Is;  bushels,  still  it 
would   be  but  mean  land.     And    a  long   succession   of  annual   vet; 
rs  to  be  left  on  the  land,  or  a  great  quantity  of  prepared  putn 
manure  furnished  a  required  to  o  oil  both  rich 

and  deep.     If  the  original  m  ten  inches. deep,  the  fertility  before 

marling  might  have  been  but  little  more  than  on  the  shallowest  soil.  But 
heavy  marling  and  deep  and  good  tillage  would  have  served  speedily  to 
n.ike  a  rich  and  productive  soil,  approaching  in  value  to  those  rich  sands 
of  Europe  mentioned  aboi  e. 

Another  large  i  la  or  lands  of  lower  Virginia  are  the  close 

•lays,  of  whii  Is  still    more   shallow  than  the  sands,      Sim  h   laud 

and  formed  the  subjects  1 1| 
This  is  the  very  worst  soil  known   before  being  marled,  and  also  ihe  most 
worthless  of  all  known  marled  soils.     And  yet  a  thrce-f  .Id  product  has  been 
usually  obtained   on   these   lands   by  m  .  within  four  or  at  most 

years  after  the  application  ill  marl.   Still,  this  land,  as  well  as  the  most 
•  il  and  abundance  ni'  ve 
tar,  to  become  fertile  and  vain  ab 

While  then  calcareous  manures  may  be  counted  on  to  produce  great  im- 
minent on  all   soils  not   naturally  provided  with  them — and  to  show  as 
great  a  of  increase  on  the  worst  as  on  better  soils,  and  a  remu- 

nerating profit  on  all — still,  it  will  be  far  more  profitable  to  marl  some  soils 
than  others.  Dung,  or  other  alimentary  manure  in  ihe  best  condition  for 
use,  increases  vegetation  mainly  in  proportion  to  the  quantity. .of  the  ma- 
nure, and  without  regard  or  proportion  to  the  previous  product  of  the  soil. 
Thus,  a  wasteful  ap  I  dung  might  in  a  single-year  increase  the 

production  of  an  acre  of  very  poor  land,  from.,  bushels  to  50  bushels  of 
corn.  But  calcareous  manures  improve  production  in  proportion  to  the 
previous  power  of  the  soil;  and  if  the  original  product  be  very  low,  the 
addition  thereto  of  100  or  even  200  per  cent.,  made  on  the  first  crops  after 
marling,  will  show  still  but  a  poor  product.  These  remarks  and  illustra- 
tions are  designed  for  the  instruction  of  those  beginners  who  deem  it  import- 
ant to  learn  on  what  kinds  of  soil  to  apply  their  marl.  In  more  general 
terms  I  would  answer,  "apply  it  to  all  soils  not  already  calcareous;"  for 
however  different  may  be  the  measure  of  profit,  1  have  never  known  marl 
applied  unprofitably  in  regard  to  place,  if  applied  judiciously  in  manner. 
Of  course  1  refer  to  soils  having  some  previous  productiye  power  and  some 
tenacity;  and  not  to  such  naked  sands,  drifting  with  the  wind- 
in  pan  irolina,  South  Carolina  ai 


J  |g  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PK 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    PERMANENCY    OF    CALCAREOUS     MANURES,  AND    OF    ALlMENTAr.Y    OR     PUTRES- 
CENT   MANURES,  WHEN    COMBINED    WITH    THE    CALCAREOUS. 

Proposilicn  5— continued. 

It  was  stated,  (page  70)  that  the  ground  on  which  an  old  experiment 
was  made  and  abandoned  as  a  failure,  more  than  sixty  years  ago,  still  con- 
tinues to  show  the  effects  of  marl.  Lord  Karnes  mentions  a  fact  of  the 
continued  beneficial  effect  of  an  application  of  calcareous  manure,  which 
was  known  to  be  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  old*  Every  author  who 
has  treated  of  manures  of  this  nature,  attests  their  long  duration.  But 
when  they  say  that  they  will  last  twenty  years,  or  even  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years,  it  amounts  to  the  admission  that  at  some  future  time  the 
effects  of  these  manures  will  be  lost.  This  I  deny — and  from  the  nature 
and  action  of  calcareous  earth,  claim  for  its  effects  a  duration  that  will 
have  no  end. 

If  calcareous  earth,  applied  as  manure,  is  not  afterwards  combined  with 
some  acid  in  the  soil,  it  must  retain  its  first  form,  which  is  as  indestructible, 
and  as  little  liable  to  be  wasted,  by  any  cause  whatever,  as  the  sand  and 
clay  that  form  the  other  earthy  ingredients  of  the  soil.  The  only  possible 
vent  for  its  loss,  is  the  very  small  proportion  taken  up  by  the  roots  of 
plants,  which  is  so  inconsiderable  as  scarcely  to  deserve  naming. 

Clay  is  a  manure  for  sandy  soils,  serving  to  close  their  too  open  texture. 
When  so  applied,  no  one  can  doubt  but  that  this  effect  of  the  clay  will  last 
as  long  as  its  presence,  or  as  long  as  the  soil  itself.  Neither  can  calcareous 
earth  cease  to  exert  its  peculiar  powers  as  a  manure,  any  more  than  clay 
can,  by  the  lapse  of  time,  lose  its  power  of  making  sands  more  firm  and 
adhesive.  Making  due  allowance  for  the  minute  quantity  drawn  up  into 
growing  plants,  it  is  as  absurd  to  assert  that  the  calcareous  earth  in  a  soil, 
whether  furnished  by  nature  or  not,  can  be  exhausted,  as  that  cultivation 
can  deprive  a  soil  of  its  sand  or  clay. 

But  on  my  supposition  that  calcareous  earth  will  change  its  form  by 
combining  with  acid  in  the  soil,  it  may  perhaps  be  doubted  by  some  whe- 
ther it  will  be  equally  safe  from  waste  under  its  new  form.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  the  permanency  of  this  compound  cannot  be  proved  by  its 
insolubility,  or  other  properties,  because  neither  the  kind  nor  the  nature  of 
the  salt  itself  is  yet  known. \  But  judging  from  the  force  with  which  good 
neutral  soils  resist  the  exhaustion  of  their  fertility,  and  their  always  pre- 
serving their  peculiar  character,  it  cannot  be  believed  that  the  calcareous 
earth,  once  present,  has  been  lessened  in  durability  by  its  chemical  change 
of  form.  It  was  contended  that  the  action  of  calcareous  earth  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  make  a  poor  acid  soil  fertile ;  but  it  does  not  thence  follow 
that  other  substances,  and  particularly  this  sail  of  lime,  may  not  serve  as 
well  to  preserve  the  fertility  bestowed  at  first  by  calcareous  earth.  All  that 
is  required  for  this  purpose,  is  the  power  of  combining  with  putrescent 
matter,  and  thereby  fixing  it  in  the  soil ;  and  judging  solely  from  effects, 

•  Gentleman  Farmer,  page  266,  2d  Edin.  edition. 

t  This  passage  is  left  as  it  stood  in  the  first  edition,  before  the  discovery  of  the  humic 
acid  was  known.  Indeed  no  aid  has  been  derived  from  that  discovery,  nor  any  change 
of  language  made  in  consequence  of  it,  except  by  inserting  the  quotation  respecting 
tbii  lubstance,  and  the  remarks  thereon,  at  page  53. 


CALCABBOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE.  jjg 

this  power  seems  to  be  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree  by  litis  new  com- 
bination of  lime.     If  this  salt  is  the  oxalate  of  li ,   aa  there  is  most  rea- 

>  believe,)  it  is  insoluble  in  water,  and  consequently  safe  from  waste; 
ami  the  same  property  belongs  to  n  mbinations  of  lime  with 

vegetable  acid  The  acetate  of  lime  is  soluble  in  water,  and  while  alone, 
might  be  carried  off  by  rains.     But  if  it  combines  with  putrescent  matter, 

arnica]  affinity,  its  previous  solubility  will  no  longer  remain.  Sulphate 
of  iron  pperas)  is  easily  soluble;  but  when  it  forms  One  of  the  compo- 
nent parts  of  ink.  it  can  no  longer  be  separately  dissolved  by  water,  or 
taken  away  from  the  coloring  matter  combined  with  it.  In  rich  limestone 
soils,  and  some  of  our  best  river  lands,  in  which  no  carbonate  of  lime  now 
remains,  we  may  suppose  that  its  change  of  form  to  some  other  salt  of  lime 
took  place  centuries  ago.  Yet,  however  scourged; and  exhausted  by  cul- 
tivation, these  soils  still  show,  as  Strqpgly  as  ever,  the  qualities  which 
were  derived  from  their  former  calcareous  ingredient  When  the  dark  color 
of  such  soils,  their  power  of  absorption,  an.  I  <>i  holding  manures,  their  friabi- 
lity, and  their  peculiar  fitness  for  clover  and  certain  other  plants,  are  no 
longer  to  be  distinguished,  then,  and  not  before,  may  the  salt  of  lime  be 
considered  as  lost  to  the  soil. 

But  though  all  persons  would  probably  admit  this  general  proposition, 
that  these  natural  quality  tils,  including  a  cerl  >  of,  or 

tendency  to  productive  po  but  stating>in  other 

words,  that  the  good  effects  of  calcareous  manures  are  permanent — ) 
still  perhaps  icw  would  grant  the  possibility  of  permanency  of  efTect  to 
putrescent  manures  also,  when  ifter.    Yet  this  latter  proposition 

is  as  legitimate  a  deduction  fro  the  former  proposition  is 

from  the  theory  which  has  been  maintained  o(  the  action  of  calcareous  ma- 
nures. The  attention  of  the  n  [uested  to  the  argument  which 
will  now  be  Offered  to  sustain  this  important  deduction.     ' 

We  have  all  been  trained  to  consider  farm-yard  arid  stable  manures, 
dui)g,  and  all  vegetable  and  other  putrescent  matters,  when  applied  to 
as  having  temporary  effects  only;  and  whether  the  effects  lasted  for  but 
the  first  crop,  as  on  acid  sandy  soils,  or  for  four,  six  or  even  eight  years 
on  well  constituted  natural  soils,  still  the  elicits  were  truly,  as  usually  con- 
sidered, only  for  a  limited  time,  and  would  at  some  'period  be  totally  lost, 
and  the  ground  so  manured  would  return  to  the  same  state  of  less  produc- 
tiveness, as  of  the  surrounding  land,  previously  equal,  and  which  had  re- 
ceived no  such  manuring.  Such  views  are  almost  universal ;  and  the  utmost 
that  would  be  claimed  by  the  most  zealous  and  sanguine  advocate  for  ex- 
tending the  use  of  such  manun  -.  a  protracted  though  still  limited 
and  temporary  duration  of  effect.  And  the  actual  results  would  always 
accord  with  these  opinions,  (and  also  with  my  theory  of  the  action  of  cal- 
careous manures.)  both  on  good  and  on  bad  soils,  before  making  them 
more  calcareous.  All  natural  soils  (not  excessively  and  injuriously  calca- 
reous.) have  secured  by  their  natural  powers  and  facilities,  and  have  had 
fixed  in  them,  as  much  alimentary  matter  as  their  natural  ingredient  of  lime 
could  combine  with.  If  that  ingredient  had  been  very  small,  the  soil  would 
be  poor;  if  large,  then  the  soil  would  be  rich.  Hut  in  neither  case  would 
there  be  power  in  the  soil  to  combine  with  an  additional  supply  of  alimen- 
tary manure;  and  if  such  were  applied,  it  would  be  exhausted  and  pass 
away,  rapidly  on  the  bad  soil,  and  more  slowly  on  the  good;  bul  i  Mainly. 
in  the  end,  on  both. 

Again,  suppose  the  soils  to  be  more  or  less  exhausted  by  scourging  cul- 
tivation. Then  their  actual  amount  of  alimentary  matter  would  have  been 
reduced  below  what  their  respective  shares  of  lime  could  combine  with 


120  CALCAREOUS   MANURES*- PKACTICL. 

and  retain,  under  a  state  of  nature,  or  of  mild  tillage.  Then,  if  alimentary 
manures  were  applied,  so  much  as  was  required  for  combination  by  the 
lime  present  would  be  as  permanently  fixed  as  if  the  original  fertility  had 
never  been  abstracted ;  and  any  additional  quantity  and  excess  of  manure, 
not  being  so  combined  and  fixed,  would  be  totally  lost  in  more  or  less  time, 
as  in  the  previously  supposed  case. 

Lest  these  proposition.-;  may  not  appear,  because  of  their  novelty,  per- 
fectly clear  and  unquestionable  to  every  reader,  an  illustration  will  be 
offered  which  can  scarcely  fail  to  induce  their  general  and  ready  admission. 
Suppose  a  cultivator  to  have  two  fields,  one  of  bad  and  poor  soil  naturally, 
and  the  other  of  the  best  natural  quahty — and  both  having  been  brought 
under  cultivation  together,  and  kept  under  the  same  rotation  of  crops  and 
other  management.  Suppose  further  that  the  equal  and  uniform  course  of 
cropping  has  been  such,  (whether  taking  one  or  two  or  three  grains  crops 
to  one  year  of  rest  and  resuscitation,)  that  both  fields  have  neither  been 
reduced  nor  increased  in  average  product,  since  brought  under  regular 
tillage— and  that  such  average  product,  when  of  corn,  is  equal  to  10  bushels 
per  acre  on  the  poor,  and  50  bushels  on  the  rich  soil.  Now,  these  different 
products  are  derived  from  the  different  funds  of  alimentary  and  putrescent 
manure  originally  supplied  to  the  soil  by  nature,  (which  were  just  so  much 
as  the  lime  of  each  soil  could  combine  with,)  and,  under  the  supposed 
degrees  of  exaction  and  relief  counteracting  each  other  under  tillage,  the 
same  rates  of  product  may  be  obtained  for  ever.  And  the  yielding  of  50 
bushels  by  the  one  soil  operates  no  more  to  reduce  its  after  power  of  pro- 
duction, than  the  yield  of  the  other  of  but  one-fifth  of  that  amount  of  crop. 
The  yield  from  each  soil,  at  and  for  the  time,  is  certainly  so  much  reduction 
of  its  productive  power ;  but  the  recuperative  power  of  each  (to  seize 
upon  and  hold  to  new  supplies  for  fertilization)  is  in  proportion  to  the  yield  ; 
and  the  vegetable  growth  serving  for  manure,  and  atmospherical  influences, 
during  a  year  of  rest,  will  continually  give  to  the  good  soil  the  renewed 
power  of  producing  again  its  large  crop,  as  certainly  as  to  the  poor  soil 
the  power  of  still  continuing  to  produce  its  small  crop.  It  is  not  that  the 
natural  alimentary  manure  in  the  soil  is  not  taken  away  in  part,  by  the 
growth  and  removal  of  every  crop — but  that  such  waste  is  continually 
compensated  by  new  acquisitions.  And  whether  such  new  supplies  of 
alimentary  matter  be  furnished  in  part  during  every  day,  or  in  every  year, 
or  only  during  the  one  term  of  rest  in  the  whole  course  of  crops,  the  practi- 
cal result  is  the  same,  of  the  natural  or  original  amount  of  alimentary  ma- 
nure remaining  finally  undiminished. 

So  far  as  to  the  absolute  permanency  of  putrescent  or  alimentary  ma- 
nures supplied  by  nature.  Next  let  us  see  whether  the  same  reasoning, 
and  also  experience,  so  far  as  yet  obtained,  do  not  in  like  manner  prove  the 
permanency  of  putrescent  manures  applied  after  calcareous  manures.  The 
poor  soil  just  presented  for  illustration,  while  having  its  natural  alimentary 
ingredient  and  its  natural  supply  of  lime  thus  balanced  and  proportioned 
to  each  other,  was  supposed  to  produce  at  the  rate  of  10  bushels  of  corn 
to  the  acre,  and  to  remain  at  or  near  that  rate  of  productive  power. 
Suppose  then  marl  to  be  applied  in  such  quantity  as  would  give  enough  cal- 
careous earth  to  combine  with  twice  as  much  new  alimentary  matter  as  the 
soil  before  held.  Suppose  further,  that  the  soil  so  marled  is  not  left  to  draw 
and  store  up  this  now  needed  stock  of  alimentary  manure  by  its  newly 
increased  power,  (and  as  would  be  done  in  due  time,  if  under  favorable 
circumstances  of  tillage,)  but  that  so  much  putrescent  manure  is  applied 
to  the  soil,  gradually  and  judiciously,  as  can  be  combined  with  and  held  by 
the  supply  of  calcareous  earth  ;  and  that  such  addition  of  manure  gives  to 


1 1  \ki.mi  s  ,  nci  i-2i 

Hi.-  s..ii  a  power  t.i  produce  10  bushels  ol  corn.  Issoonas  this  combina- 
tion is  completely  made,  the  soil  Is  in  precisely  the  sa condition  as  to  its 

newly  increased  rate  a!  product  of  30  bushels,  as  before  to  that  of  10 
bushels;  and  the  new  and  larger  supply  of  putrescent  manure  must  be  as 
permanent  as  was  the  natural  and  smaller  supply. 

Bat  it  is  not  contended  that  the  mere  application  of  vegetable  or  other 
putrescent  manure,  under  such  circumstances,  secures  the  permanency  of 
..f  nil  thus  applied,  but  only  ol  somui  and  is  combined 

with  the' calcareous  earth.  And  many  circumstances  may  and  do  usually 
obstruct  the  immediate  and  complete  combination  taking  place  To  ensure 
the  perfect  and  full  result,  the  intermixture  of  the  calcareous  and  the  pu- 
trescent matters,  and  in  due  proportions,  must  be  perfect,  and  no  excess  of 
the  latter  remain  any  where  in  the  soil;  the  putrescent  matter  must  also  be 
in  the  particular  state  of  decomposition  (whatever  that  may  be)  to  enter 
into  combination  ;  and  moreover  there  must  be  enough  and  equally  diffused 
moisture,  without  which  no  chemical  combination  can  take  place.  Now  as 
some  and  probably  all  these  conditions  must  necessarily  be  deficient  in 
every  case  of  applying  putrescent  matters  to  marled  land.it  must  follow 
that  much  of  the  list    remain   uncombined  for  some  length  of 

time;  and  during  that  time  is  as  liable  to  be  wasted  and  exhausted  as  if 
in  any  other  soil.'  And  hence,  and  the  more  as  the  dressing  is  lavish,  farm- 
yard and  stable  manure  so  applied  must  be  expected  fcd  yield  more  fox  the 
first  and  second  year,  while  the  excess  is  wasting,  than  afterwards.  But 
after  this  first  waste  and  exhaustion  has  been  sulfercd,  whatever  of  the 
manure  remains  to  the  soils,  say  for  the  next  ensuing  rotation  at  latest, 
must  be  fully  combined  with  and  fixed  in  tlie  soil,  and  will  be  permanent 
for  all  future  time,  under  proper,  judicious,  and  also  the  most  profitable 
course  bf  cropping.  This  first  waste  probably  cannot  be  entirely  prevent- 
nt  can  be  much  lessened  by  care.  And  to  this  end,  putrescent  ma- 
nure should  not  be  applied  heavily  at  once,  but  lightly,  and  repeated  subse- 
quently, and  should  be  well  scattered  and  equally  diffused  over  the  ground. 
Its  subsequent  decomposition  being  Blow,  and  the  ;  dually 

as   well  as  surely   presented    I  infused    previously  throughout 

the  soil,  will  also  tend  to  remove  as  much  as  possible  of  the  manure  from 
the  condition  of  being  fleeting  and  wasting,  to  that  of  being  fixed  and 
permanent 

Next  let  us  see  how  far  facts  and  experience  sustain  this  reasoning.  It 
is  readily  admitted  that  the  time  since  marling  was  commenced  in  Virginia. 
and  since  correct  views  of  the  action  of  calcareous  manures  were  enter- 
tained and  act.d  on  in  any  case,  has  been  too  short  to  furnish  decided 
proofs.  But  so  far  as  accurate  facts  can  thus  be  referred  to,  they  fully 
sustain  the  foregoing  doctrine,  not  only  of  the  permanency  of  calcareous 
manures,  but  also  of  putrescent  manures  in  combination  therewith.  Some 
of  these  facts  will   I  ally. 

However  in  accordance  with  (be  theory  of  the  action  of  calcareous 
manures,  this  absolute  permanency  of  effect  given  thereby  to  putrescent 
manures  was  not  at  first  counted  on  or  expected,  and  was  not  known 
until  it  was  forced  on  my  observation  by  long  continued  results.  My 
own  practice  is  not  only  the  oldest,  but  is  all  that  f  can  refer  to  for  , 
And  until  all  my  marling  was  completed,  and  indeed  for  some  time  after, 
but  little  care  was  used  by  me  to  make  and  apply  putrescent  manures. 
This  culpable  neglect  was  the  result  of  the  habits  caused  by  the  disappoint- 
ments and  losses  experienced  in  manuring  long  before.  From  the  same 
ignorance  and  c  un  ipect,  no  experiments  on  the  durability 

of  putrescent  manures  were  made  until  long  after,  and  then  injudiciously 


122  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE. 

Thus,  in  the  three  experiments  4,  9,  and  11,  the  putrescent  manure  applied 
was  in  quantity  much  too  great  for  the  calcareous  earth  to  combine  with  at 
once,  even  if  the  recent  and  irregular  scattering  of  both  kinds  of  manure 
had  not  prevented  their  meeting  in  proper  proportions.  For  like  reasons,  of 
all  the  putrescent  manures  applied  on  the  farm,  and  since  larger  quantities 
have  been  used,  there  is  much  more  of  early  than  continued  effect.  Still,  so 
far  as  known  and  believed,  there  is  always  more  or  less  of  abiding  effect, 
and  which  I  infer  will  be  permanent. 

But  wider  scope  for.  observation  lias  been  afforded  in  the  increasing  pro- 
ductiveness of  all  the  marled  lands,  kept  under  what  was  deemed  not  too 
frequent  tillage.  Neither  has  the  tillage  been  always  mild,  nor  the  rotation 
uniform,  and  latterly  the  grain  crops  have  been  made  more  frequent 
than  before,  and  much  more  grazing  permitted.  Still,  even  where  no 
prepared  putrescent  manures  have  ever  been  applied,  and  putrescent  mat- 
ters have  been  furnished  only  from  the  growth  of  the  land  itself  during  its 
share  of  rest  in  each  course  of  crops,  there  has  been  a  regular  increase  of 
productiveness  of  the  grain  crops,  in  every  successive  rotation.  In  one 
connected  clearing,  of  what  I  found  as  poor  forest  land,  now  making  85 
acres,  the  marling  was  commenced  in  1818,  and  has  been  continued,  as  the 
successive  clearings  extended,  to  1841.  The  earliest  effects  of  the  applica- 
tions were  always  satisfactory,  but  they  have  regularly  and  largely  increased 
with  time.  Thus,  when  under  the  last  crop  of  corn,  (in  1839,)  the  crop  on 
the  last  finished  marling,  though  perhaps  thereby  nearly  doubled  in  product, 
was  obviously  and  considerably  less  than  that  of  four  to  six  years  earlier — 
that  again  as  inferior  to  that  of  the  marling  of  ten  to  fifteen  years — and  the 
crop  on  the  marling  of  1821  and  earlier,  decidedly  the  best  of  all,  under 
circumstances  otherwise  equal.  For  the  limited  time  of  23  years,  and 
without  any  careful  and  accurate  experiment  or  observation  having  been 
made  for  this  special  object,  there  could  not  well  be  stronger  practical 
proof  of  the  permanency  of  the  vegetable  manures  stored  up  by  the  marl. 

If  we  keep  in  mind  the  mode  by  which  calcareous  manure  acts,  its 
effects  may  be  anticipated  for  a  much  longer  time  than  my  experience  ex- 
tends. Let  us  trace  the  supposed  effects,  from  the  causes,  on  an  acid  soil 
kept  under  meliorating  culture.  As  soon  as  applied,  the  calcareous  earth 
combines  with  all  the  acid  then  present,  and  to  that  extent  is  changed  to 
the  vegetable  salt  of  lime.  The  remaining  calcareous  earth  continues  to 
take  up  the  after  formations  of  acid,  and  (together  with  the  salt  so  pro- 
duced) to  fix  putrescent  manures,  as  fast  as  these  substances  are  present- 
ed, until  all  the  lime  has  been  combined  with  acid,  and  all  their  product 
is  combined  with  putrescent  matter.  Both  those  actions  then  cease.  Dur- 
ing all  the  time  necessary  for  those  changes,  the  soil  has  been  regularly 
increasing  in  productiveness ;  and  it  may  be  supposed  that  before  their 
completion,  the  product  had  risen  from  ten  to  thirty  bushels  of  corn  to  the 
acre.  The  soil  lias  then  become  neutral.  It  can  never  lose  its  ability 
(under  the  mild  rotation  supposed)  of  producing  thirty  bushels— but  it  has 
no  power  to  rise  above  that  product.  Vegetable  food  continues  to  form^ 
but  is  mostly  wasted,  because  the  salt  of  lime  is  already  combined  with  as 
much  as  it  can  act  on ;  and  whatever  excess  of  vegetable  matter  remains 
in  the  soil,  is  kept  useless  by  acid  also  newly  formed,  and  left  free  and 
noxious  as  before  the  application  of  calcareous  earth.  But  though  this 
excess  of  acid  may  balance  and  keep  useless  the  excess  of  vegetable  mat- 
ter, it  cannot  affect  the  previously  fixed  fertility,  nor  lessen  the  power  of 
the  soil  to  yield  its  then  maximum  product  of  thirty  bushels.  In  this  state 
of  things,  sorrel  may  again  begin  to  grow,  and  its  return  may  be  taken  as 
notice  that  a  new  marling  is  needed,  and  will  afford  additional  profit,  in  the 


t   U.CAREOUS  MANUKAS— PRACTICE.  J.^j 

same  manner  as  before,  by  destroying  the  last  formed  acid,  and  fixing  the 
last  supply  Of  vegetable  matter.  Thus  perhaps  live  or  ten  bushels  more 
may  be  added  to  the  previous  product,  and  a  power  given  to  the  soil  gra- 
dually to  increase  as  much  "more,  before  it  will  stop  again  for  similar  rea- 
sons, at  a  second  maximum  product  of  forty  or  fifty  bushels.  I  pretend 
not  to  lix  the  time  necessary  for  the  completion  of  one  or  mure  of  these 
gradual  changes;  but  as  the  termination  of  each,  and  the  consequent  ad- 
ditional marling,  will  add  new  profits,  it  ought  to  be  desired  by  the  farmer, 
instead  of  his  wishing  that  his  first  labor  Qf  marling  each  acre  may  also 
be  the  last  required.  Every  permanent  addition  of  five  bushels  of  corn,  to 
the  previous'  average  crop,  will  more  than  repay  the  heai  that 

have  yet  been  encountered  in  marling.  But  whether  a  second  application 
of  marl  is  made  or  not,  I  cannot  imagine  such  a  consequence,  under  judi- 
cious tillage,  as  the  actual  decrease  of  the  product  once  obtained.  My 
earliest  marled  land  has  been  severely  cropped,  compared  to  the  rotation 
supposed  above,  and  yet  has  continued  to  improve,  though  at  a  slow  rate. 
The  part  first  marled,  in  1818,  had  only  four  years  of  rest  in  the  next  fif- 
teen ;  anil  yielded  nine  crops  of  grain,  one  of  cotton,  and  one  year  clo- 
ver twice  mowed.  This  piece,  however,  besides  being  sown  with  gypsum, 
(with  little  benefit,)  once  received  a  light  cover  of  rotted  corn-stalk  ma- 
nure. The  balance  of  the  same  piece  of  land  (Exp,  1  )  was  marled  for  the 
crop  of  1821 — has  borne  the  same  treatment  since,  and  has  had  no  other 
manure,  except  gypseous  earth  once,  (in  1830,)  which  acted  well.  These 
periods  of  twelve  and  fifteen  years  (even  though  now  extended  to  and 
confirmed  by  nine  years  more  of  experience)  are  very  short  to  serve  as 
grounds  to  decide  on  the  eternal  duration  of  a  manure.  But  it  can  scarce- 
ly be  believed  that  the  effect  of  any  temporary  manure,  would  not  have 
been  somewhat  abated  by  such  a-  course  of  severe  tillage.  Under  milder 
treatment,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  would  have  been  much  greater 
Improvement 

If  subjected  to  a  long  course  of  the  most  severe  cultivation,  a  soil  could 
not  be  deprived  of  its  calcareous  ingredient,  whether  natural  or  artificial : 
but  though  still  calcareous,  it  would  be,  in  the  end,  reduced  to  barrenness, 
by  the  exhaustion  of  its  vegetable  matter.  Under  the  usual  system  of  ex- 
hausting cultivation,  marl  certainly  improves  the  product  of  acid  soils,  and 
may  continue  to  add  to  the  previous  amount  of  crop,  for  a  considerable 
time ;  yet  the  theory  of  its  action  instructs  us,  that  the  ultimate  result  of 
marling,  under  such  circumstances,  must  be  the  more  complete  destruction 
of  the  land,  by  enabling  it  to  yield  all  its  vegetable  food  to  growing  plants, 
which  would  have  been  prevented  by  the  continuance  of  its  former  acid 
state.  An  acid  soil  yielding  only  five  bushels  of  corn  may  contain  enough 
food  for  plants  to  bring  fifteen  bushels — and  its  production  will  be  raised  to 
that  mark,  as  soon  as  marling  sets  free  its  dormant  powers.  But  a  calca- 
reous soil  reduced  to  a  product  of  five  bushels,  can  furnish  food  for  no 
more,  and  nothing  but  an  expensive  application  of  putrescent  manures,  can 
render  it  worth  the  labor  of  cultivation.  Thus  it  is,  that  soils,  the  improve- 
ment of  which  is  the  most  hopeless  without  calcareous  manures,  will  be 
the  most  certainly  improved  with  profit  by  their  use. 


I  ' 


124  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    EXPENSE    AND    PROFIT   OP    MARLING. 

Proposition  5 — concluded. 

At  this  time  there  are  but  few  persons  among  us  who  doubt  the  great 
benefit  to  be  derived  from  the  use  of  marl :  and  many  of  those  who  ten 
years  ago  deemed  the  practice  the  result  of  folly,  and  a  fit  subject  for  ridi- 
cule, now  give  that  manure  credit  for  virtues  which  it  certainly  does  not 
possess;  and  from  their  manner  of  applying  it  seem  to  believe  it  a  univer- 
sal cure  for  sterility.  -  Such  erroneous  views  have  been  a  principal  cause 
of  the  many  injudicious  and  even  injurious  applications  of  marl.  It  is  as 
necessary  to  moderate  the  ill-founded  expectations  which  many  entertain, 
as  to  excite  the  too  feeble  hopes  of  others. 

The  improvement  caused  by  marling,  and  its  permanency,  have  been 
established  beyond  question.  Still  the  improvement  may  be  paid  for  too 
dearly — and  the  propriety  of  the  practice  must  depend  entirely  on  the 
amount  of  its  clear  profits,  ascertained  by  fair  estimates  of  the  expenses 
incurred. 

With  those  who  attempt  any  calculations  of  this  kind,  it  is  very  common 
to  set  out  on  the  mistaken  ground  that  the  expense  of  marling  should  bear 
some  proportion  to  the  selling  price  of  the  land  :  and  without  in  the  least 
under-rating  the  effects  of  marl,  they  conclude  that  the  improvement  cannot 
justify  an  expense  of  six  dollars  on  an  acre  of  land  that  would  not  pre- 
viously sell  for  four  dollars.  Such  a  conclusion  would  be  correct  if  the 
land  were  held  as  an  article  for  sale,  and  intended  to  be  disposed  of  as  soon 
as  possible :  as  the  expense  in  that  case  might  not  be  returned  in  imme- 
diate profit,  and  certainly  would  not  be  added  to  the  price  of  the  land  by 
the  purchaser,  under  present  circumstances.  But  if  the  land  is  held  as  a 
possession  of  any  permanency,  its  previous  price,  or  its  subsequent  valua- 
tion, has  no  bearing  whatever  on  the  amount  which  it  may  be  profitable  to 
expend  for  its  improvement.  Land  that  sells  at  four  dollars,  is  often  too 
dear  at  as  many  cents,  because  its  product  will  not  pay  the  expense  of  cul- 
tivation. But  if  by  laying  out  for  the  improvement  ten  dollars,  or  even 
one  hundred  dollars  to  the  acre,  the  average  increased  annual  profit  would 
certainly  and  permanently  -be  worth  ten  per  cent,  on  that  oost  of  improve- 
ment, then  the  expenditure  would  be  highly  expedient  and  profitable.  We 
are  so  generally  influenced  by  a  rage  for  extending  our  domain,  that  ano- 
ther farm  is  often  bought,  stocked  and  cultivated,  when  a  liberal  estimate 
of  its  expected  products,  would  not  show  an  annual  clear  profit  of  three 
per  cent. :  and  any  one  would  mortgage  his  estate  to  buy  another  thousand 
acres,  that  was  supposed  fully  capable  of  yielding  ten  per  cent,  on  its  price. 
Yet  the  advantage  would  be  precisely  the  same,  if  the  principal  money  was 
used  to  enrich  the  land  already  in  possession,  (without  regard  to  its  extent, 
or  previous  value,)  with  equal  assurance  of  its  yielding  the  same  amount 
of  profit.  i 

Nothing  is  more  general,  or  has  had  a  worse  influence  on  the  state  of 
agriculture,  than  the  desire  to  extend  our  cultivation  and  landed  posses- 
sions. One  of  the  consequences  of  this  disposition  has  been  to  give  an 
artificial  value  to  the  poorest  land,  considered  merely  as  so  much  territory, 

*  This  was  in  1SS1,  when  these  remarks  were  first  printed.  They  are  less  applicant 
now  than  formerly. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES     PRACTICE.  125 

while  various  causes  h.e.  I  to  depress  the  price  of  all  good  soils 

much  below  their  real  worth.  \\  hatever  .1  farm  will  sell  for  fixes  its  value 
as  merchandise;  but  by  no  means  ia  it  a  fa  of  its  value  as  per- 

ineuria farming  1  apitaj. 

Tiir  true  value  of  land,  and  also  ofady  permanent  improvements  to 
land,  1  would  estimate  in  the  following  manner.  Ascertain  as  nearly  as 
possible  the  average  cleai  and  permanent  annua]  incomp,  and  the  land  is 
worth  as  much  money  as  would  securely  yield  thai  amount  ol  income,  in  the 
form  of  interest — which  may  be  considered  as  worth  six  percent.  For  exam- 
ple, if  afield  brings  ten  dollars  average  value  of  crops  to  the  acre,  in  the 
course  of  a  four-shift  rotation,  and  the  average  expense  oi  every  kind  neces- 
sary to  carry  on  the  cultivation  is  also  ten  dollars,  then  the  land  yields  no- 
thing, and  is  worth  nothing.  If  the  average  clear  profit  was  but  two  dollars 
and  forty  cents  in  the  term,  or  only  sixty  cents  a  year,  it  would  raise  the 
value  of  the  land  to  ten  dollars;  and  if  six  dollars  could  be  made  annually, 
clear  of  all  expense,  it  is  equally  certain  that  one  hundred  dollars  would  be 
the  fair  value  of  the  acre.  Vet  if  lands  of  precisely  these  rates  of  profit  were 
offered  for  sale  at  this  time,  the  poorest  would  probably  sell  for  four  dollars, 
and  the  richest  for  less  than  thirty  dollars.  In  like  manner,  if  any  field,  that 
paid  the  expense  of  cultivation  before,  has  its  average  annual  net  product 
increase. 1  six  dollars  for  each  acre,  by  some  permanent  improvement,  the 
value  thereby  added  to  the  field  is  one  hundred  dollars  the  acre,  without 
rd  to  its  former  worth.  L,et  the  cost  and  value  of  marling  be  com- 
plied by  this  rule,  and  it  will  be  found  that  the  capital  laid  out  in  that  mode 
of  improvement  will  seldom  return  an  annual  interest  of  less  than  twenty 
percent.— that  it  will  more  often  reach  to  forty— and  sometimes  exceed  one 
hundred  per  gent  of  annua]  and  permanent  interest  on  the  investment. 
The  application  of  this  rule  for  the  valuation  of  such  improvements  will 
them  to  such  an  amount,  that  the  magnitude  of  the  sum  may  be 
uffictent  contradiction  ol  my  estimates.  Hut  before  this  mode 
of  estimating  values  -  rejected,  merely  for.  the  supposed  absurdity  of  an 
acid  soil  being  considered  as  raised  from  one  dollar,  or  nothing,  to  thirty 
dollars,  or  more,  per  acre,  by  a  single  marling,  let  it  at  least  be  examined 
and  its  tall, n  | 

If  the  reader  will  accompany  me  through  some  detailed  estimates  of  va- 
lues, and  arithmetical  calculations,  in  regard  to  the  grounds  of  which  we 
cannot  differ,  the  truth  of  the  result  which  1  claim  will  be  made  manifest, 
however  startling  and  monstrous  they  may  appear  to  some  persons  at  first 
glance. 

Assuming  as  sound  and  unquestii  -      timatmgthe 

intrinsic  value  ol  lai  irally  in  the  last  paragraph,  let  us  illus- 

trate the  position  more  particularly.  The  print  iple  of  valuation  is  that  the 
land  is  worth  to  its  proprietor  and  cultivator  such  sum  of  money  as  would 

yield  in  annual  in;  amount  as  the  net  annual  product  of  the 

land,  offer  paying  lor  all  labor,  attention,  expenses  and  risks,  [further,  to 
simplify  the  calculation,  and* also  to  suit  the  course  of  culture  to  the  more 
general  practice  of  the  country,  let  us  suppose  the  laud  in  question  to  be 
cultivated  under  the  ordinary  three-shift  rotation,  of  1st,  corn.  2nd,  wheat,  (or 
oats.i  3rd,  at  rest,  with  no  grazing  when  the  land  is  poor,  and  with  but  par- 
tial .md  :  or  mowing  of  clover)  when  improved  or  rich. 

Then  suppose  a  field  of  the  poor  und  thin  soil  most  common  in  lower 
Virginia,  under  this  treatment  for  some  years  previously,  to  produce,  on 
the  general  average,  In  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre,  and  j  bushels  of  wheat, 
or  its  equivalent  value  of  oats;  and  the  value  of  the  coin,  at  the  barn, 
to  be  50  cents  the  bushel,  and  of  the  wheat  91.  And  let  the  joint  and  total 
16 


J26  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE. 

expenses  of  preparation,  tillage,  seed,  harvesting,  thrashing,  Sec.,  for 
market,  (or  for  home  use,)  and  of  superintendence  and  care  of  both  the 
corn  and  wheat  or  oat  crops,  be  counted  as  being  over  and  above  the  value 
of  the  offal  (stalks,  straw,  &c.)  of  the  crops,  by  SI  0  for  the  two  years.  Then 
the  full  statement  will  be  as  follows : 
First  year,  product  in  corn  per  acre,  10  bushels,  at  50  cents  -         S5 

Second  year,  wheat,  5  bushels,  at  t 1 ,  5 

Third  year,  no  crop  or  profit,  and  no  expense,         ....  0 

Total  product  of  the  three-years'  rotation.               -         -         -         -       S10 
Cost  of  cultivation,  &c.,  of  the  crop,  10 

Xet  profit,  00 

However  wretched  may  be  the  foregoing  exhibition  of  products,  it  will 
be  admitted  to  be  abundantly  liberal  by  all  persons  acquainted  with  lower 
and  middle  Virginia,  for  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  cultivated  lands. 
Yet  such  lands  might  sell  at  prices  varying  from  S3  to  S6  the  acre,  and  that 
without  a  view  to  their  being  improved,  and  even  before  calcareous  ma- 
nures were  thought  of  as  means  for  improvement.  Yet  the  conclusion 
is  evident,  that  such  land,  no  matter  what  may  be  its  then  selling  price, 
(or  speculative  appreciation  caused  by  the  effects  of  paper-money  and 
fraudulent  bank  issues,)  is  worth  not  one  cent  for  cultivation,  or  for  the  be- 
nefit of  the  proprietor  and  cultivator. 

Next,  suppose  the  land  in  question  to  be  properly  marled,  and  at  the  un- 
usually heavy  expense  of  S7  the  acre.  This  rate  is  more  than  double  the 
usual  expense  for  a  full  and  sufficient  dressing,  when  the  marl  is  obtained 
on  the  farm  where  applied.  Suppose  also  that  the  increase  of  products. 
as  shown  in  the  second  course  of  the  rotation,  (beginning  three  years  after 
the  application,)  is  equal  to  100  per  cent,  on  the  production  previous  to 
marling.  This  estimate  is  quite  low  enough,  as  all  experience  has  shown. 
Upon  such  land,  and  so  treated,  this  degree  of  increase  may  very  often  be 
obtained  upon  the  first  crop  of  the  first  course ;  and,  even  if  no  auxiliary 
means  of  enriching  be  afterwards  used,  the  rate  of  increase  will  be  more  and 
more  for  each  of  sundry  succeeding  courses  of  crops  thereafter.  Then  let 
us  test  the  value  of  the  returns  by  figures  as  before : 
First  year,  product  in  corn  per  acre,  20  bushels,  at  50  cents,  -         $10 

Second  year,  wheat,  10  bushels,  at  $1, 10 

Third  year,  clover  most  of  it  left  as  manure  to  the  land,  and  no 

profit  counted  here,  -■---....  00 

20 

Total  expenses  of  cultivation,  &c,  as  before,  in  two  years,         -  10 

Net  product,  or  clear  profit  of  cultivation  in  the  term  of  three 

years, $10 

This  is  all  so  much  increase  of  net  annual  product  upon  the  previous 
rate;  and  the  amount,  S3.33  yearly,  is  the  interest,  (at  6  per  cent.,)  of 
something  more  than  a  capital  of  855.  And  therefore,  according  to  these 
grounds  of  estimate,  S55  per  acre  is  the  increase  of  intrinsic  value  given 
to  the  land  by  marling  alone,  or  S4S  the  clear  gain  made  by  the  operation, 
after  deducting  S7  paid  for  the  marling  of  the  land;  and  this  without  regard 
to  what  might  have  been  its  previous  intrinsic  value,  or  its  former  or  its 
present  market  price.  The  more  rigidly  this  mode  of  estimate  is  scruti- 
nized, the  more  manifestly  true  will  be  found  the  results.  The  premises  as- 
sumed, in  the  supposed  effects  and  profits  of  marling,  will  not  be  objected  to 


• 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE.  127 

(unless  as  being  too  low)  by  any  person  who  is  well  informed  by  practice 
and  experience. 

But  there  is  one  important  apparent  omission  of  a  proper  charge  in  the 
last  statement  of  expenses.    This  is  the  i  tillage,  har- 

vesting, &C.,  caused  by- the  crop  being  ddubledin  quantity.  This  is  cer- 
tainly a  lair  ground  of  charge;  and,  if  estimated  alone,  would  serve  to 
reduce  considerably  the  statement  of  increased  net  product,  and  conse- 
quently of  increased  value  of  lartd.  But  there  were  also  omitted  Sundry 
items  oif  Increased  production,  which  together  would  undoubtedly  much 
more  than  compensate  for  the  Increase  ol  labor  in  tilling  a  deeper  and 
richer  soil,  and  in  harvesting,  removing  and  preparing  for  sale  or  use, 
a  double  quantity  ol"  crop.  These  items  of  gain  are,  first,  the  additional 
oflal,  in  corn-stalks,  fodder  and  shucks,  and  wheat  or  oat  straw,  and  chaff"— 
I,  the  limited  proportion  of  clover  grazed  or  mowed— and  third,  the 
further  gradual  increase  of  crops,  in  subsequent  time.  Probably  the  first 
class  of  items  alone  would  balance  the  increased  expense  of  labor;  if  not, 
the  addition  o(  the  second  (the  clover)  certainly  would  be  enough.  And 
if  that  be  doubted,  the  subsequent  annual  increase  upon  the  first  doubling 
of  the  crops  (which  only  is  estimated  above)  will  not  only  furnish  a  fund 
to  meet  any  such  deficiency,  but  also  will  greatly,  and  beyond  any  calcula- 
tion here  attempted,  augment  the  whole  profit  of  marling,  and  consequently 
the  intrinsic  value  of  the  land  to  the  proprietor. 

I  admit  the  practical  difficulty  of  applying  this  rule  for  estimating  the 
value  of  land,  or  of  its  improvement,  however  certain  may  he  its  theore- 
tical truth.  It  is  not  possible  to  fix  on  the  precise  clear  profit  of  any  farm 
to  its  owner  and  cultivator;  and  any  error  made  in  these  premises  is  in- 
creased sixteen  and  two-third  times  in  the  estimate  of  value  founded  on 
them.  Still  we  may  approximate  the  truth  with  most  certainty  by  using 
this  guide.  The  early  increase  of  crop  from  marling  will,  in  most  cases,  be 
an  equal  increase  of  clear  profit,  (for  the  subsequent  improvement  and  the 
additional  offal  will  surely  pay  for  the  increase  of  labor— )  and  it  is  not  very 
difficult  to  lix  a  value  for  that  actual  increase  of  crop,  and  thereby  to  esti- 
mate the  value  of  the  improvement,  as  farming  capital." 

This  mode  of  valuing  land,  under  a  dilferent  form,  is  universally  re- 
I  as  correct  in  England.  Cultivation  there  is  carried  on  almost  en- 
tirely by  tenants ;  and  the  annual  rent  which  any  farm  brings,  on  a  long 
lease,  fixes  beyond  question  what  Is  its  annual  clear  profit  to  the  owner. 
The  price,  or  value  of  land,  is  generally  estimated  at  so  many  "years'  pur- 
chase," which  means  as  many  years'  rent  as  will  return  the  purchaser's 
money.  There,  the  interest  of  money  being  lower,  increases  the  value  of 
land  according  to  this  mode  of  estimation  ;  and  it  is  generally  sold  as  hiL*h 
as  twenty  years'  purchase.  My  estimate  is  less  favorable  for  raising  the 
value  of  our  lands,  as  it  fixes  them  at  sixteen  and  two-thirds  years'  pur- 
chase, according  to  our  higher  rate  of  interest  on  money. 

Bat  though  this  rule  for  estimating  the  true  value  of  land,  and  of  the 
improvements  made  by  marling,  may  be  unquestionable  in  theory,  still  a 
practical  objection  will  be  presented  by  the  well  known  fact  that  the  income 
and  profits  of  farmers  are  not  increased  in  proportion  to  such  improve- 
ments, nor  is  there  found  such  a  vast  disproportion  as  this  rule  of  estimat- 
ing values  would  show,  between  the  profits  of  the  tillers  of  poor  and  of 
rich  lands.  These  positions  are  admitted  to  be  generally  well  founded — 
hut  it  is  denied  that  they  invalidate  the  previous  estimates      A  fanner  may, 

•  No  <l"erpc  of  uncertainty  in  the  application,  however,  detract*  from  ita  troth      I 
if  the  annual  average  net  pfbfit  derived  from  marling  be  considered  as  an  unknown  quan- 
tity (x),  it  is  not  therefore  the  less  certain  that  r  X   lfif  =  the  increased  intrinsic  value  of 
the  land. 


J2f  CALCAREOUS  MAMM.--1  I..,,  i  K>. 

and  generally  does,  obtain  less  gross  product  from  a  large  or  a  rich  farm, 
than  his  more  necessitous,  and  therefore  more  attentive  and  economical 
neighbor  gets  from  a  smaller  or  poorer  farm,  in  proportion  to  the  producing 
power  of  each  ;  and  even  the  same  persons,  when  young  and  needy,  have 
often  made  more  profit  according  to  their  means,  than  afterwards  when 
relieved  from  want,  and  having  lands  increased  to  a  double  power  of 
production.  These,  and  similar  facts,  however  general,  are  only  examples 
of  the  obvious  truth,  that  the  profits  of  land  depend  principally  on  the  in- 
dustry, economy,  and  good  management  of  the  cultivator  ;  and  that  many 
a  farmer,  who  can  manage  well  a  small  or  poor  farm,  is  more  deficient  in 
industry,  economy,  or  the  increased  degree  of  knowledge  required,  when 
possessed  of  much  more  abundant  resources.  In  short,  if  these  considera- 
tions were  to  direct  or  influence  our  estimates,  we  should  not  be  comparing 
and  estimating  the  value  of  lands,  but  the  value  of  the  care  and  industry 
bestowed  on  their  management  by  their  proprietors. 

Another  objector  may  ask,  '•  If  any  poor  land  is  raised  in  value,  (accord- 
ing to  this  estimate,)  from  one  dollar  to  thirty,  by  marling,  would  a  purchaser 
make  a  judicious  investment  of  his  capita),  by  buying  this  improved  land 
at  thirty  dollars'"  I  would  answer  in  the  arfirmative,  if  the  view  was 
confined  to  this  particular  means  of  investing  farming  capital.  The  pur- 
chaser would  get  a  clear  interest  of  six  per  cent. — which  is  always  a  good 
return  from  land,  and  is  twice  as  much  as  all  lower  Virginia  now  yields. 
But  if  such  a  purchase  is  compared  with  other  means  of  acquiring  land  so 
improved,  it  would  be  extremely  injudicious  ■.  because  thirty  dollars  expend- 
ed in  purchasing  and  marling  suitable  land,  would  serve  both  to  acquire  and 
improve,  to  as  high  a  value,  five  or  six  acres. 

Estimates  of  the  expenses  required  for  marling  are  commonly  erected 
on  as  improper  grounds  as  those  of  its  profits.  We  never  calculate  the 
cost  of  any  old  practice.  We  are  content  to  clear  wood-land  that  after- 
wards will  not  pay  for  the  expense  of  tillage — to  keep  under  the  plough 
laDd  reduced  to  five  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre— to  build  and  continue  to 
repair  miles  of  useless  and  perishable  fences — to  make  farm-yard  manure, 
(though  not  much  of  this  fault,)  and  apply  it  to  acid  soils — without  once 
calculating  whether  we  lose  or  gain  by  any  of  these  operations.  But  let 
any  new  practice  be  proposed,  and  then  every  one  begins  to  count  its  cost ; 
and  that  on  such  erroneous  premises,  that  if  applied  to  every  kind  of  farm 
labor,  the  estimate  would  prove  that  the  most  fertile  land  known  could 
scarcely  defray  the  expenses  of  its  cultivation. 

According  to  estimates  made  with  much  care  and  accuracy,  the  cost  of 
an  uncommonly  expensive  job  of  marling,  4036  bushels  in  quantity,  in 
1 5  - 4 .  amounted  to  $5.35  the  acre,  for  595  bushels  of  marl.  This  quantity 
was  much  too  great ;  400  bushels  would  have  been  quite  enough  for  safety 
and  profit,  and  would  have  reduced  the  whole  expense,  including  every 
necessary  preparation,  to  $3.50  the  acre.  The  earth  which  was  taken  off, 
to  uncover  the  bed  of  marl,  was  considerably  thicker  than  the  marl  itself. 
The  road  from  the  pit  ascended  hills  amounting  to  fifty  feet  of  perpendicu- 
lar elevation — and  the  average  distance  to  the  field  was  S4T  yards.  The 
full  estimates  of  these  operations  will  be  presented  in  the  next  chapter. 

It  is  impossible  to  carry  on  marling  to  advantage,  or  with  any  thing 
like  economy,  unless  it  is  made  a  regular  business,  to  be  continued  through- 
out the  year  or  a  specified  portion  of  it,  by  a  laboring  force  devoted  to  that 
purpose,  and  not  allowed  to  be  withdrawn  for  any  other.  Instead  of  pro- 
ceeding on  this  plan,  most  persons,  who  have  begun  to  marl,  attempt  it  in 
the  short  intervals  of  leisure  afforded  between  their  different  Arming 
operations — and  without  lessening  for  this  purpose  the  extent  of  their  usual 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES    PJiACTICE.  i->;i 

eultivatfbn.  Let  us  suppose  ih.it  the  preparations  have  been  made,  and,  on 
the  first  opportunity,  a  (arjner  commences  marling  with  zeal  and  spirit.  But 
ever}  new  laboi  is  attended  by  causes  of  difficulty  and  delay,  and  a  full 
share  of  these  will  be  found  In  the  first  fewdayso!  marling.    There! 

■oft,  lor  want  of  previous  use,  and,  if  the  least  wet,  s becomes  miry. 

The  horses,  unaccustomed  to  carting,  balk  at  the  hills,  or  only  carry  half 
loads.  <  Ither  difficulties  occur  from  the  awkwardness  of  the  laborers  and 
the  Inexperience  of  their  master,  and  still  more  from  the  usual  Tin  willing- 
ness of  his  overseer  to  devote  any  labor  to  improvements  which  arc  not 
ted  to  add  to  the  crop  of  that  year.  Before  matters  can  get  straight, 
the  leisure  time  is  at  an  end  ;  and  the  work  is  stopped,  and  the  road  and  pit 
arc  lefl  ti>  get  "in  of-order,  before  making  another  attempt,  some  six  months 
after,  when  all  the  same  vexatious  difficulties  air  again  in  be  encountered. 

If  only  a  single  horse  is  employed  in  drawing  marl  through 
year,  at  the  moderate  allowance  of  two  hundred  working  days,  and  one 
hundred  bushels  carried  out  for  each,  his  year's  work  will  amount  to 
twenty  thousand  bushels,  or  enough  for  more  than  sixty  acres.  This  alone 
would  be  a  great  object  effected.  But,  besides,  this  plan  would  allow  the 
profitable  employment  of  any  amount  of  additional  labor.  When,  at  any 
time,  other  teams  and  laborers  could  be  spared  to  assist,  though  for  only  a 
few  days,  everything  is  ready  for  them  to  go  immediately  to  work.  The 
pit  is  drained,  the  road  is  firm,  and  the  field  marked  oil  for  the  loads.  In 
this  way  much  labor  may  be  obtained  in  the  course  of  the  year,  from 
trams  that  would  otherwise  he  idle,  and  laborers  whose  other  employments 
would  lie  of  hut  little  importance.  The  spreading  of  marl  on  the  field  is 
a  job  that  will  always  he  ready  to  employ  any  spare  labor ;  and  throwing 
oil  the  covering  earth  from  an  intended  digging  of  marl  may  be  done 
when  rain,  snow,  or  severe  cold  has  rendered  the  earth  unfit  for  almost 
every  other  kind  of  labor. 

Another  interesting  question  respecting  the  expense  of  this  improvement 
is,  to  what  distance  from  tile  pit  may  marl  he  profitably  carried  1  If  the 
amount  of  labor  necessary  to  carry  it  half  a  mile  is  known,  it  is  easy  to 
calculate,  how  much  more  will  be  required  for  two  or  three  miles.  The 
cost  of  teams  and  drivers  is  in  proportion  to  the  distance  travelled,  but  the 
pit  and  field  labors  are  not  affected  by  that  circumstance.  At  present,  when 
so  much  poor  land,  abundantly  supplied  with  fossil  shells,  may  be  bought 
at  from  two  dollars  to  four  dollars  the  acre,  a  farmer  had  better  buy  and 
marl  a  new  farm,  than  to  move  marl  even  two  miles  to  his  land  in  posses- 
sion.* But  this  would  be  merely  declining  one  considerable  profit,  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  another  much  greater.  Whenever  the  value  of  marl  shall 
be  properly  understood,  and  our  lands  are  priced  according  to  their  improve- 
ment, or  their  capability  of  being  improved  from  that  source,  as  must 
be  the  case  hereafter,  then  this  choice  of  advantages  will  no  longer  be 
offered.     Then  rich  marl  will  be  profitably  carted  miles  from  the  pits,  and 

*  This  statement  of  prices,  though  correct  wlien  tir-t  published,  is  no  longer  so. 
Borne  htlle  land    may  yet  be  so  low;  but,  in   genet  of  lands  having  marl 

have  already  advanced  front  Si)  to  100  p  I  cent  within  IS  years.  The  lowest  ol  the 
above  named  prices  n  •    the  former  minimum  rate.     The  various  tracts  of 

land   in  Jatnea   City   county    belonging   to    Mrs.    ParadU  in   sold 

some  12  or  14  years  ago,  brought  prices  that  averaged  only  aboul  81  26  the  acre.  Most 
of  the  lands  were  poor,  but  easily  improvable,  and  all  having  plenty  of  rich  marl.  One 
of  the  tracts  of  that  description,  of  son  acres,  was  bought  it  ".">  cents  the  acre;  and 
after  being  held  for  three  or  four  years,  without  being  in  any  respect  improved, 
NSold  by  the  purchaser  for  S'-  Si)  the  acre.  Where  marl  has  been  actuallj  applii 
increased  intrinsic  or  productive  value  of  the  hind  always  considerably  exceeds  the  in- 
creased market  price,  even  though  II  loubled  of  tripled 


130  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACH 

perhaps  conveyed  by  water  as  far  as  it  may  be  needed.  A  bushel  01 
marl  as  the  bed  on  James  river,  described  page  92,  is  as  rich  in  calcareous 
earth  alone,  as  a  bushel  of  slaked  lime  will  be  after  it  becomes  carbonateJ. 
and  the  greater  weight  of  the  first  is  a  less  disadvantage  for  water  car- 
riage, than  the  price  of  the  latter.  Farmers  on  James  river,  who  have 
used  lime  as  manure  to  great  extent  and  advantage,  might  more  cheaply 
have  moved  rich  marl  twenty  miles  by  water,  as  it  would  cost  nothing  but 
the  labor  of  digging  and  transportation. 

Within  the  short  time  that  has  elapsed  since  the  first  publication  of  the 
foregoing  passages  in  the  first  edition  of  this  essay,  the  transportation  of 
marl  by  water  carriage  has  been  commenced  on  James  river,  and  has  been 
carried  on  with  more  facility  and  at  less  expense  than  was  anticipated. 
The  farmers  who  may  profit  by  this  new  mode  of  using  marl  will  be  in- 
debted to  the  enterprise  of  C.  H.  Minge,  esq.,  of  Charles  City,  for  having 
made  the  first  full  and  satisfactory  experiment  of  the  business  on  a  large 
scale. 

Since  the  publication  of  the  last  edition,  the  transportation  of  marl  by 
water-carriage  has  been  carried  on  much  more  extensively.  But  very  re- 
cently another  source  for  obtaining  calcareous  manures  has  been  opened  to 
the  farmers  of  lower  Virginia,  which  they  think  cheaper  than  either  trans- 
porting marl  or  burning  shells,  and  they  are  availing  of  it  to  great  extent. 
This  is  northern  stone-lime,  which  is  brought  in  bulk,  ready  slaked,  and 
sold  by  the  vessel  load  at  prices  varying  from  S  to  10  cents  the  bushel. 
Slaked  lime,  even  if  pure,  from  its  extreme  lightness,  cannot  be  as  much  to 
the  bushel  as  rich  marl  contains  of  pure  lime,  even  though  the  marl  may 
have  30  per  cent,  of  other  earths.  Therefore  the  lime  is  much  the  most  costly, 
as  marl  may  be  procured  and  transported  at  from  3  to  5  cents  the  bushel. 
Still,  the  lime  is  so  much  more  readily  obtained  in  large  quantities,  and  a  farm 
can  by  that  means  be  so  much  more  speedily  covered,  that  the  purchase  of 
lime  is  often  the  more  desirable  and  also  the  more  profitable  operation  of 
the  two. 

In  making  this  improvement,  more  than  in  any  other  business.  "  time  is 
money."  Marling  is  usually  effected  by  the  farmer's  labor,  whereas  the  ex- 
pense of  liming  is  mostly  in  the  purchase.  By  the  use  of  water-borne  marl, 
few  farmers  could  dress  a  fourth  of  their  tillage  field  in  a  year,  whereas  by 
purchasing  lime  the  whole  field  might  be  limed,  and  the  whole  farm  cover- 
ed in  one-fourth  of  the  time  required  for  marling.  If  then  the  lime  were 
even  thrice  the  cost  of  marl,  (for  equal  quantities  of  pure  lime,)  it  would 
still  be  the  cheapest  mode  of  improvement,  because  yielding  its  products 
in  one-fourth  of  the  time  required  for  marling.  The  difference  of  amount 
of  net  product  in  the  first  crop,  between  an  acre  marled  or  limed,  and 
another  acre  not  so  improved,  would  usually  pay  the  cost  of  marling  or 
liming  the  acre.  Therefore,  on  every  acre  cultivated  by  any  farmer,  and 
not  marled  or  limed  until  after  making  the  crop,  there  is  as  much  loss  of 
crop  suffered  by  the  delay,  as  would  have  paid  for  making  the  improve- 
ment. 

The  objections  to  carrying  marl  unusual  distances,  admitted  above, 
apply  merely  to  improvements  proposed  for  field  culture.  But  it  would  be 
profitable,  even  under  existing  circumstances,  for  rich  marl  to  be  carried 
five  miles  by  land,  or  one  hundred  miles  by  water,  for  the  purpose  of  being 
applied  to  gardens,  or  other  land  kept  under  perpetual  tillage,  and  re- 
ceiving frequent  and  heavy  coverings  of  putrescent  manure.  In  such 
cases,  independent  of  the  direct  benefit  which  the  calcareous  earth  might 
afford  to  the  crops,  its  power  of  combining  with  putrescent  matters,  and 
preventing  their  waste,  would  be  of  the  utmost  importance.     If  the  soil 


i  All  AM  nl  s  MANURES-PRACTICE.  1 3  ] 

is  acid,  the  making  it  calcareous  will  enable  half  tin-  usual  supplies  of 
manure  to  he  more  effective  and  durable  than  tin'  whole  had  been.  There 
are  other  uses  lor  mar),  about  dwelling  houses  and  in  towns,  which  should 
Induce  its  being  carried  much   farther  than   mere  agricultural   purposes 

would  warrant.     1  allude  to  the  use  of  calcan s  earth  in  preserving  pu- 

ii    matters,  and   thereby  promoting   cleanliness  and   health.    This 
important  subject  will  hereafter  he  separately  considered. 

ESther  lime  or  g I  marl  may  hereafter  lie  profitably  distributed  over  a 

remote  strip  of  poor  land,  by  means  of  the  rail-road  now  constructing  from 
Petersburg  to  the  Roanoke  [1831];  provided  the  proprietors  do  not  imitate 
the  over  greedy  policy  of  the  legislature  of  Virginia  in  imposing  tolls  on 
manures  passing  through  the  James  river  canal.  II'  there  were  no  object 
whatever  in  view  hut  to  draw  the  greatest  possible  income  from  tolls  on 
canals  and  roads,  tine  policy  would  direct  that  all  manures  should  pass 
from  town  to  country  toll  free.  Every  bushel  of  lime,  marl,  or  gypsum 
thus  conveyed,  would  lie  the  means  of  bringing  hack,  in  future  time,  more 
than  as  much  wheat  or  corn;  and  there  would  be  an  actual  gain  in  tolls, 
besides  the  twenty-fold  greater  increase  to  the  wealth  of  individuals  and 
the  state.  Wood-ashes,  after  being  deprived  of  their  potash,  have  calca- 
reous earth,  and  a  smaller  proportion  of  phosphate  of  lime,  as  their  only 
fertilizing  ingredients;  and  both  together  do  not  commonly  make  more 
than  there  is  of  calcareous  earth  in  the  same  hulk  of  good  marl.  Yet 
drawn  ashes  have  heen  purchased  largely  from  our  soap  factories,  at  five 
cents  the  bushel,  and  carried  by  sea  to  be  sold  for  manure  to  the  farmers  of 
Long  Island.  Except  for  the  proportion  of  phosphate  of  lime  which  they 
in,  drawn  ashes  are  simply  artificial  marl  — more  fit  for  immediate 
action,  by  being  finely  divided,  hut  weaker  in  amount  of  calcareous  earth 
than  our  best  beds  of  fossil  shells. 

The  argument  in  support  of  the  several  propositions  which  have  been 
discussed  through  so  many  chapters,  is  now  concluded.  However  un- 
skilfully. I  Hatter  myself  that  it  has  been  effectually  used ;  and  that  the 
general  deficiency  in  our  soils  of  calcareous  earth,  the  necessity  of  supply- 
ing it,  the  profit  by  that  means  to  be  derived,  and  the  high  importance  of 
all  these  considerations,  have  been  established  too  firmly  to  be  shaken  by 
either  arguments  or  facts. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

ESTIMATES    Ol'    THE    COST    0P    LABOR    APPLIED    TO    MARLINn. 

Before  we  can  estimate  with  any  truth  the  expense  of  improving  land 
by  marling,  it  is  necessary  to  fix  the  fair  cost  of  every  kind  of  labor  ne- 
cessary for  the  purpose,  and  for  a  length  of  time  not  less  than  one  year. 
We  very  often  hear  guesses  pf  how  much  a  day's  labor  of  a  man,  a  hi 
or  a  wagon  and  team,  may  he  worth  — and  all  are  wide  of  the  truth,  be- 
they  are  made  on  wrong  premise-,  or  no  premises  whatever.  The 
only  correct  method  is  to  reduce  every  kind  of  labor  to  its  elements — and 
to  fix  the  co>t  of  every  particular  necessary  to  furnish  it.  This  I  shall 
attempt ;  and  if  my  estimates  are  erroneous  in  any  particular,  other  persons 
letter  informed  may  easily  correct  my  calculation  in  that  respect,  and  make 
the  necessary  allowance  on  the  final  amount.     Thus,  even  my  mistakes  in 


. 

$38 

00 

7 

80 

78 

9 

IMI 

$17 
1 

3 

1 

2 

58 
05 

IS 

00 

44 
75 
50 

53 

7  19 


|32  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE. 

the  grounds  of  these  estimates,  will  not  prevent  true  and  valuable  results 
being  derived  from  them. 

The  following  estimates  were  made  in  1828,  according  to  the  prices  of 
that  year.  I  shall  make  no  alteration  in  any  of  the  sums,  because  there  is 
no  considerable  difference  at  this  time,  (January  1832,)  and  the  least  altera- 
tion would  make  it  necessary  to  change  the  after  calculations  founded  on 
them.  But  no  one  estimate  will  suit  for  years  of  different  prices.  If  any 
one  desires  to  know  the  value  of  labor  when  corn  (for  example)  is  higher 
or  lower,  he  must  ascertain  the  difference  in  that  item,  and  add  or  deduct, 
so  as  to  correct  the  error. 

Cost  of  the  labor  of  a  negro  man  in  1828. 

I  •' ire  for  the  year,  payable  at  the  end, 
Food—  19  J  bushels  of  corn  at  40  cents, 

Add  10  per  cent,  for  waste  in  keeping, 

Meat  and  fish,  &c. 

Interest  for  one  year  on  $17  58,  paid  for  food, 

Clothing— 6  yards  coarse  woollen  cloth,  at  50  cents, 
12  yards  cotton,  for  summer  clothes  and  two 

shirts,  at  12  cents, 
Blanket  at  SI  50,  once  in  two  years— yearly, 
Shoes  and  mending, 

Taxes — State,  47  cents—  county  47 — poor  33— road, 

suppose  1  dollar,  2  27 

His   share  of  expense  of  quarters,  fuel,  and 

sending  to  mill,  4  50 

Nursing  when  sick,  (exclusive  of  medical  aid,)  1   50  ' 

8  27 

$72  09 
Add  20  per  cent,  on  the  whole  of  the  above  for  cost 
of  superintendence,  waste,  wanton  damage 
to  stock,  tools,  &c.  and  thefts,  14  41 

Total  expense  per  year,  $86  50 

Time  lost— Sundays  and  holidays,  58  days 
Bad  weather  and  half 

holidays,  suppose      20 
Sickness,  suppose  10 

Making  in  all  88 

From  365,  deduct  88,  leaves  277  working  days;  which  makes  the  cost 
of  each  working  day  3 1 1  cents. 

The  hire  was  fixed  at  the  average  price  obtained  that  year  for  ten  or 
twelve  young  men  hired  out  at  the  highest  bids,  for  field  labor.  According 
to  the  established  custom,  all  the  expenses  of  medical  attendance,  and  loss 
of  time  from  the  death  of  a  slave  occurring  when  he  is  hired,  are  paid,  or 
deducted  from  the  hire  by  the  owner,  and  therefore  are  omitted  in  this  es- 
timate. By  supposing  the  slave  to  be  hired  by  his  employer,  instead  of 
being  owned,  the  calculation  is  made  more  simple,  and  therefore  more  correct. 


$12  00 

12 

95 

6 

50 

7 

19 

7 

78 

$46 

37 

CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE.  133 

Cost  of  the  labor  of  a  negro  woman. 

Hire  for  the  year, 

Food,  

Clothing,  blanket,  and  shoes,  .... 

Taxes,  quarters,  fuel,  mill,  nursing,  fto. 

Add  80  per  coat  as  before,  for  superintendence,  &c, 

Total  yearly  cost, 

Suppose  lost  time,  100  days,  leaves  working  days  265,  at  17  J  cents  for 
each. 

Nearly  all  the  women  who  are  usually  hired  out  are  wanted  by  persons 
having  few  or  no  other  slaves,  as  cooks,  or  for  some  other  employment  at 
which  they  are  more  useful  than  at  field  labor— and  their  price  is  nearer 
fifteen  dollars  in  these  cases.  But  when  there  is  no  demand  for  such  pur- 
poses, women  for  field  labor  will  not  bring  more  than  twelve  dollars. 

A  boy  of  twelve  or  thirteen  would  hire  for  more  than  the  foregoing 
estimate  of  the  hire  of  a  woman,  but  would  not  lose  half  the  time  from 
sickness  and  bad  weather,  and  therefore  may  be  supposed  to  cost  the  same 
per  day,  or  seventeen  and  a  third  cents.  A  girl  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  years, 
for  similar  reasons,  may  be  put  at  the  same  price. 

Cost  of  the  labor  of  a  horse. 

First  cost  of  a  good  work  horse,  $80  00— supposed  to 

last  five  years  at  work,  makes  the  yearly  wear,         -         $16  00 
Interest  for  one  year  on  $30  00—84  80— tax,  12  cents,  4  92 

90  bbta.  of  corn  at  $2  00—3,500  lbs.  of  fodder  at  50 

cents  the  hundred, 

Add  10  per  cent  for  waste  in  keeping, 


Interest  on  969  25,  for  one  year, 
share  of  yearly  expense  for  corn-house, 


Total  year]*  cost, 


95' 

50 

5 

;:. 

63 

::< 

>:: 

79 

47 

4 

26 

■- 

188 

IS 

Lost  time,  '.is  .lays,  leaves  263  working  days,  at  .S3  cents  nearly. 

A  mule  eats  less  corn  than  a  horse,  but  more  hay,  and  lives  longer,  and 
may  be  considered  as  costing  one-fifth  less,  or  yearly  cost,  .«70  00,  and 
dairy,  26J  cents, 

A  tumbrel  for  marling,  « ill  1  est  n  hen  new .  126  00 
It  will  lasl  two  yean,  or  (what  is  the  same  thing)  il  thai  mho  will 

pay  for  all  repairs,  fba  two  yean,  its  weai  pel  year,  is 
Interest  on  «^.r>  00  for  a  year, 1   50 


'    i.M    1  •   , 


And  at  •.!<'>?  working  days—  cost  per  day  five  cents. 

1 1  the  estimate  of  the  cost  ol  horse  labor,  no  charpe  is  made  for  attend- 
ance, because  that  is  part  of  the  labor  of  the  driver,  and  forms  part  ol 
hit  expense      No  charge  is  made  for  grousing,  be  ause  enough  corn  and  hay 
17 


j  34  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 

are  allowed  for  every  day  in  the  year—  and  when  grass  is  part  of  his  food, 
more  than  as  much  in  value  is  saved  in  his  dry  food.  No  charge  is  made 
for  stable  or  litter,  as  the  manure  made  is  supposed  to  compensate  those 
expenses. 

It  may  be  supposed  that  the  prices  fixed  for  corn,  and  fodder  or  hay,  are 
too  low  for  an  average.  Such  is  not  my  opinion.  The  price  is  fixed  at 
the  beginning  of  the  year,  when  it  is  always  comparatively  low,  because  it 
is  too  soon  for  purchasers  to  keep  shelled  corn  in  bulk,  and  the  market  is 
glutted.  Besides,  the  allowance  for  waste  during  the  year's  use  (10  per 
cent.)  makes  the  actual  price  equal  to  two  dollars  and  twenty  cents  on 
July  1st.  The  nominal  country  price  of  corn  in  January  is  almost  always 
on  credit—  and  small  debts  for  corn  are  the  latest  and  worst  paid  of  all. 
The  farmer  who  can  consume  any  additional  portion  of  his  crop,  in  employ- 
ing profitable  labor,  becomes  his  own  best  customer.  The  corn  supposed 
to  be  used,  by  these  estimates,  is  transferred  on  the  first  of  January,  with- 
out even  the  trouble  of  shelling  or  measuring,  from  A.  B.  corn-seller,  to  A. 
B.  marler,  and  instantly  paid  for.  Two  dollars  per  barrel  at  that  early 
time,  and  obtained  with  as  little  trouble,  from  any  purchaser,  would  be  a 
better  regular  sale  than  the  average  of  prices  and  payments  have  afforded 
for  the  last  eight  years. 

Cost  of  marling,  founded  on  the  foregoing  estimates  of  the  cost  of  labor. 

From  the  beginning  of  November,  1823,  to  the  31st  of  May,  1824,  a  re- 
gular force,  of  two  horses  and  suitable  hands,  was  employed  in  marling  on 
Coggins  Point,  on  every  working  day,  unless  prevented  by  bad  weather, 
wet  and  soft  roads,  or  some  pressing  labor  of  other  kinds.  The  same  two 
horses  were  used,  without  any  change,  and  indeed  they  had  drawn  the 
greater  part  of  all  the  mar)  carried  out  on  the  farm,  since  1818.  The  best 
of  the  two  was  seventeen  years  old— both  of  middle  size,  and  both  worse 
than  any  of  my  other  horses,  which  were  kept  at  ploughing. 

The  following  estimates  were  made  on  a  connected  portion  of  this  time 
and  labor,  and  upon  my  own  personal  observation  and  notes  of  the  work, 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  It  was  very  desirable  to  me  to  know  the 
exact  cost  of  some  considerable  job  of  marling,  attended  with  certain 
known  difficulties,  and  on  any  particular  mode  of  estimating  the  expense  ; 
for  although  the  same  degree  of  difficulty,  and  of  cost  of  labor,  might  never 
again  be  met  with,  still,  any  such  estimate  would  furnish  a  tolerable  rule 
to  apply,  in  a  modified  form,  to  any  other  undertaking  of  this  kind.  These 
estimates  may  be  even  more  useful  to  other  persons ;  as  they  will  ser  ve 
generally  to  prove  that  the  greatest  obstacles  to  the  execution  of  this  im- 
provement are  less  alarming,  and  more  easily  overcome,  than  any  inexpe- 
rienced persons  would  suppose. 

Both  these  jobs  were  attended  with  uncommon  difficulties,  in  the  unusual 
thickness  of  the  superincumbent  earth,  compared  to  that  of  the  fossil  shells 
worth  digging,  and  on  account  of  the  distance,  and  amount  of  ascent,  to  the 
field.  The  first  job  was  so  much  more  expensive  than  was  anticipated, 
that  it  may  perhaps  be  considered  as  a  failure—  but  as  the  account  of  its 
expense  had  been  kept  so  carefully,  it  will  be  given  just  as  if  more  success 
and  profit  had  been  obtained.  This  work  was  commenced  April  14th, 
1824.  The  bed  of  marl  for  the  upper  six  feet  of  its  thickness  is  dry  and 
firm,  though  easy  to  dig,  and  rich.  It  has  an  average  strength  of  45  per 
cent.,  the  shells  mostly  pulverized,  and  the  remaining  earth  more  of  clay 
than  sand.  After  being  carried  out,  the  heaps  appear,  to  a  superficial  ob- 
server, to  be  a  coarse  loose  sand.     Below  six  feet,  the  marl  became  so 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE.  135 

poor  as  not  to  be  worth  carrying  out,  and  was  not  used  except  when  Use 
distance  was  very  short.  Its  strength  was  less  than  2(1  percent.  The  bed 
at  first  was  exposed  on  the  surface,  near  the  bottom  ofa  steep  hfll-side;  but 
as  a  large  quantity  bad  been  taken  out,  and  several  successive  cuts  made 
into  the  face  of  the  hill  some  years  before,  the  covering  earth  was  Increased 
on  the  space  now  to  be  cleared,  so  as  to  vary  between  eight  and  sixteen 
feet,  and  I  think  averaged  between  eleven  and  twelve.  The  situation  of 
the  marl  and  road  required  that  a  clear  cart-way  should  be  made  as  low  as 
the  intended  digging ;  and  therefore  nearly  all  of  the  earth  was  to  be 
moved  by  a  scraper,  and  was  thrown  into  the  narrow  bottom  at  the  foot  of 
the  hill.  This  earth  served  thus  to  form  an  excellent  causeway  across  the 
valley,  which  made  part  of  the  road  in  the  next  undertaking.  All  this  marl 
runs  horizontally,  and  the  layers  of  different  qualities  are  very  uniform  in 
their  thickness.  The  greater  part  of  the  covering  earth  is  a  hard  clay,  or 
impure  fuller's  earth,  which  was  difficult  to  dig,  and  still  more  so  for  the 
scraper  to  take  up  and  remove.  Part  was  thrown  off  by  shovels,  and 
served  to  increase  a  mound  made  by  former  operations,  within  the  circle 
around  which  the  scraper  was  drawn. 

LaJ>or  used  in  digging  and  tailoring  earth. 

■1  days'  labor  of  9  men,  at  31  i  cents  each,  .... 

•1  <>  women,  i     ,  ,-, 

2  boys,      j  ^  Wi  cents, 

■1  1    young   girl    at    15,   and    1    old   man    at   25, 

l  8  oxen,  (the  scraper  being  drawn  by  I  half  the 

day,  which   then   rested  and   ".Mazed  while  the  others    worked 

the  other  half  of  the  day,)  at  I. r,  cents  each,       .... 

Add  80  cents  for  wear  of  scraper,  boes,  and  shovels,  - 


$11 

25 

5 

55 

1 

60 

4 

BO 

80 

Total, •  $21  00 


The  price  allowed  for  the  oxen  is  much  too  high  for  the  common  work, 
and  so  much  rest  allowed ;  but  they  work  so  seldom  at  the  scraper,  that 
both  the  men  and  the  oxen  are  awkward,  and  the  labor  is  very  heavy,  and 
even  injurious  to  the  team. 

Lnl>or  of  digging  and  carrying  out  the  marl. 

Three  tumbrels  were  kept  at  work  on  this  job  and  the  next,  a  good  mule 
being  added  to  the  regular  carting  force— and  no  time  was  lost  from  April 
20th  to  May  31st,  except  when  carts  broke  down,  (which  was  very  often, 
owing  to  careless  driving,  and  worse  carpentry,)  or  when  bad  weather 
compelled  this  labor  to  stop.  One  man  dug  the  marl  and  assisted  to  load  ; 
another  man  loaded,  and  led  the  cart  out  of  the  pit,  until  he  met  another 
driver  returning  from  the  field,  to  whom  he  delivered  the  loaded  cart  and 
returned  to  the  pit  with  the  empty  one.  Of  the  two  other  drivers,  one  was 
a  boy  of  sixteen,  and  the  other  twelve  years  old— the  youngest  only  was 
liermitted  to  ride  back,  when  returning  empty.  The  distance  to  the  nearest 
part  of  the  work  (measured  by  the  chain)  was  nine  hundred  and  two 
yards,  and  to  the  farthest  one  thousand  and  forty-five  adding  two-tMi 
tli''  different  irest  for  the  average  distance,  makes  nine  hundred 

and  ninety-seven  yards.     Tin'  ascent  from  the  pit,  by  a  road  formerly  cut 


1 35  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 

and  well  graduated  for  marling,  was  supposed  to  be  twenty-five  feet  in 
perpendicular  height ;  and  every  trip  of  the  carts,  going  and  coming,  crossed 
a  valley  supposed  to  be  fifteen  feet  deep,  and  both  sides  forming  a  hill- 
side of  that  elevation. 

When  only  four  and  a  half  feet  of  the  marl  had  been  dug,  a  large  mass 
of  earth  fell  into  the  pit,  covered  entirely  the  remaining  one  foot  and  a  half 
of  marl,  and  stopped  all  passage  for  carts.  To  clear  away  this  obstruction 
would  have  cost  more  labor  than  the  remaining  marl  was  worth,  and 
therefore  this  pit  was  abandoned.  This  happened  on  May  10th,  when  six 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  loads  had  been  carried  out,  and  the  work  done 
was  equal  to  thirty-six  days'  work  ol  one  cart,  (by  adding  together  all  the 
working  time  of  each,)  which  was  nineteen  and  a  half  loads  for  the  ave- 
rage daily  work  of  each  cart,  or  fifty-eight  for  the  three.  The  average  size 
of  the  loads,  by  trial,  was  five  and  a  half  heaped  bushels;  and  the  weight, 
one  hundred  and  one  pounds  the  bushel.  It  was  laid  on  at  one  hundred 
and  four  loads,  or  five  hundred  and  seventy-two  bushels  the  acre. 

Labor  employed  for  699  loads,  or  3844  bushels. 

2  men  at  31i  cents,  ....        62A 

2  boys  at  19  cents,  ....         38 

2  horses  at  33  cents,         ....         66 

1  mule  at  26£  cents,         ....         26£ 

3  carts  at  5  cents.  1 5 
Tools  at  3  cents, 3 


Daily  expense,  or  for  58  loads,  $2   1 1 

Digging  and  carting  699  loads  at  the  same  rate,  ...     §25  43 

Add  the  total  expense  of  removing  earth,  -         -         -         -       24  00 


$49  43 
Spreading  at  50  cents  the  100  loads, 3  50 


Total  expense,  $52  93 

Which  makes  the  cost  per  bushel,        1  25-100  cents. 
per  load,  (5J)  7 
per  acre,  of  572  bushels,  $7  85 

This  marl  was  laid  on  much  too  thick  for  common  poor  land,  and  one 
fourth  of  the  body  uncovered  was  lost  by  the  falling  in  of  the  earth.  If 
one  fourth  of  the  expense  of  uncovering  the  marl  was  deducted  on  ac- 
count of  this  loss,  it  would  reduce  the  whole  expense  nearly  one  eighth. 

As  soon  as  the  carts  were  stopped  in  the  work  just  described,  they  were 
employed  in  moving  earth  from  similar  marl,  across  the  ravine.  The 
thickness,  strength,  and  other  qualities  of  the  marl,  on  both  sides,  are  not 
perceptibly  different.  A  large  quantity  had  also  been  formerly  dug  on  this 
side,  but  the  land  being  lower,  the  covering  earth  was  not  more  than  ten 
feet  where  thickest,  and  the  average  was  eight  and  a  half  or  nine  feet.  To 
make  room  for  convenient  working,  and  a  large  job,  an  unusual  space  was 
cleared,  ten  to  fourteen  feet  wide,  and  perhaps  fifty  or  more  long.  The 
shape  of  the  adjoining  old  pits  compelled  this  to  be  irregular.     The  greater 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE.  |  37 

part  of  the  earth  was  of  the  same  hard  fuller's  earth  mentioned  as  b 
on  the  other  side— and  the  upper  part  of  this  was  still  worse,  being  in 
woods,  and  the  digging  obstructed  by  the  roots  and  trees. 

Labor  used  in  digging  and  removing  the  earth. 

.    - 

-       6  24 

50 
I  80 
8  oxen,  for  the  scraper  as  before,  each  team  at  rest  half 

the  day,  5  days,  at  15  cents, 6  00 

3  horses  and  carts,  li  days,  at  38  cents,        -        -        -         171 
Add  for  damages  to  scraper  and  other  utensils,  -         -        -  Mi.j 


ti  men 

G 

days, 

at  31  i  cents, 

5  women 

G 

) 

1  woman 

1 

>  at  \~h  cents, 

2  boys 

5 

s 

1  old  man 

2 

25  cents, 

2  girls 

6 

15  cents, 

Total  cost  of  moving  earth,  827  48J 


Enough  of  the  earth  was  carried  by  the  carts  to  the  dam  crossing  the 
ravine,  to  raise  the  road  as  high  as  the  bottom  of  the  intended  pit.  The 
balance  was  thrown  into  the  valley  wherever  most  convenient.  Only  a 
small  proportion,  perhaps  one  third,  could  be  thrown  off,  without  being 
carried  away  by  the  earts  and  scraper. 

The  loads  were  carried  to  the  same  field,  and  by  the  same  road  as  from 
the  former  digging.  The  first  hundred  and  ninety-one  loads  served  to 
finish  the  piece  begun  before,  of  which  the  average  distance  was  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-seven  yards;  all  the  balance  was  carried  to  land  ad- 
joining the  former,  eight  hundred  and  forty-seven  measured  yards  from 
the  pit. 

The  loads  were  ordered  to  be  increased  to  six  bushels,  which  was  as 
much  as  the  carts  (without  tail-boards)  could  hold,  without  waste  in  ascend- 
ing the  hills;  but  as  the  loaders  often  fell  below  that  quantity,  I  suppose  the 
average  to  have  been  five  and  three  fourths  heaped  bushels,  or  five  hundred 
and  eighty-one  pounds. 

The  tumbrels  were  kept  constantly  at  this  work,  except  when  some  of 
the  land  was  too  wet,  or  for  some  other  unavoidable  cause  of  delay.  All 
the  space  which  the  old  pits  occupied,  and  over  which  the  road  passed,  be- 
ing composed  of  tough  clay  thrown  from  later  openings,  and  which  had 
never  become  solid,  was  made  miry  by  every  heavy  rain,  and  caused  more 
loss  of  time,  than  would  usually  occur  at  that  season.  The  same  four 
laborers,  and  two  horses  and  one  mule,  employed  as  before,  and  their  daily 
work  was  as  follows : 

May  13th,  began  the  new  pit 

1 3th,  2  carts  all  the  day,  and  1  for  2  hours  only,  (afterwards  1  i 

otherwise  employed,) 47  loads.      I 

1  lth,  2      "     half  the  day,  then  employed  otherwise—  ( 1  horse 

idle) 21  If 

15th,  3     " 61 

16th,  Sunday. 

17th,  3     "     finished  most  distant  work  with        -         -         -62  |  •'• 

191    ji 


J38  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE 

Brought  forward, loads  191 

And  the  same  day  began  nearest  work  with         -         -  -    4 

May  18th,  3  carts  for  4  hours  (stopped  by  heavy  rain,)         -  22 
19th  and  20th,  3  carts  at  work  elsewhere,  on  drier  land. 

21st,  3     "    again  marling, 75 

22d,  rain,  no  work  done  by  horses. 

23d,  Sunday. 

24th,  1     "    at  other  work. 

25th,  3     "     asain  marling, 74 

26th,  3     " 75 

27th,  3     " 72 

28th,  3     » 72 

29th,  3    "    (shafts  of  one  broken  and  repaired,)         -        -  64 
30th,  Sunday. 

31st,  3     "     until  rain  at  4  P.  M. 53 

511 

702    J 

After  this  stoppage,  the  horses  were  put  to  ploughing  the  corn,  that  the 
cultivation  might  be  sufficiently  advanced  to  use  all  the  laborers  in  harvest, 
which  began  on  the  1 1  th  of  June.  As  near  as  I  could  determine  by  in- 
spection, and  a  rough  cubic  measurement,  about  one  half  of  the  uncovered 
marl  was  then  dug  and  carried  out  As  the  remainder  was  not  dug  until 
August,  when  I  was  absent  from  home,  I  have  no  more  correct  means  of 
ascertaining  these  proportions ;  and  shall  according  to  this  supposition 
charge  half  the  actual  cost  of  the  whole  uncovering  of  earth,  to  this  sup- 
posed half  of  the  marl  which  formed  this  last  operation. 

The  list  of  days'  work  shows  that  the  average  number  of  loads  per  day, 
at  eight  hundred  and  forty-seven  yards,  was  twenty-four  and  a  half  for 
each  cart,  which  made  twenty-three  and  a  half  miles  for  the  day's  journey 
of  each  horse.  The  first  four  days'  work  finished  the  farthest  piece,  of 
which  the  average  distance  was  nine  hundred  and  ninety-seven  yards— but 
this  part  of  the  work  was  on  the  nearest  side  of  that  piece,  and  at  less  than 
that  average  distance.  I  shall  not  make  any  separate  calculation,  for  these 
hundred  and  ninety-one  loads,  but  consider  all  as  if  carried  only  eight  hun- 
dred and  forty-seven  yards. 

The  daily  cost  of  the  laboring  force,  2  men,  2  boys,  2  horses, 
and  1  mule,  was  before  estimated  at  §2  11  — which  served  to 
carry  out  73£  loads,  or  422  bushels.  At  that  rate,  (to  May 
31st,)  702  loads,  or  4036  bushels,  cost,  ...  -  320  15 
Add  half  the  expense  of  uncovering,  (half  the  marl  still  remain- 
ing not  dug,) *         13  74 

For  spreading,  at  3 \\  cents  per  hundred  loads,      ...  2  183 


Total  cost  of  4036  bushels  laid  on,  -        -        -        836  07  \ 


Which  makes  the  cost  per  bushel,  9  mills  nearly. 
And  per  acre,  at  104  loads,  or  598  bushels.  85  34J 

Or,  at  400  bushels,  which  would  have  been  a  sufficient,  and  much 

safer  dressing,  per  acre,  83  57J 

In  1828,  at  Shellbanks,  Prince  George  county,  a  very  poor,  worn,  and 
hilly  farm,  I  commenced  marling,  and  in  about  four  months  finished  120$ 
acres  at  rates  between  230  and  280  bushels  per  acre.  The  time  taken  up 
in  this  work  was  five  days  in  January,  and  all  February  and  March,  with 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE  139 

two  carts  at  work— and  from  the  r.th  of  August  to  the  27th  of  September, 
with  a  much  stronger  force.     I  kept  a  very  minute  journal  of  all  these  ope- 
rations, showing  the  amount  "I  labor  employed,  and  of  loads  carried  out 
during  the  whole  time.     It  would  be  entirely  unnecessary  to  state  here  any 
thing  more  than  the  general  amounts  of  labor  and  its  expense,  after  the 
two  particular  statements  just  submitted.     At  Shellbanks,  the  difficulties  of 
opening  pits  were  generally  less,  the  average  distance  shorter,  and  the  re- 
duced state  of  the  soil,  and  the  strength  of  the  marl,  made  heavy  dressings 
dangerous.     These  circumstances  all  served  to  diminish  the  expense  to  the 
acre.     The  difficulties,   however,  at   some  of  the  pits,   were   very  great, 
owing  to  the  quantity  of  water  continually  running  in,  through  the  loose 
fragments  of  the  shells ;  and  almost  every  load  was  carried  up  some  high 
hill.     Taking  every  thing  into  consideration,  I  should  suppose  that  the  labor 
and  cost  of  this  large  job  of  marling  will  be  equal  to,  if  not  greater  than 
the  average  of  all  that  may  be  undertaken,  and  judiciously  executed,  on 
farms  having  plenty  of  this  means  for  improvement,  at  convenient  distances. 
The  whole  cost  of  this  large  job  was  as  follows  : 
Preparatory  work,  including  uncovering  marl,  cutting  and  re- 
pairing the  necessary  roads,  and  bringing  corn  (from  another 
farm)  for   the  teams — digging,  carrying  out,  and  spreading 
6892  loads  of  marl,  (4  J  heaped  bushels  only,  because  of  the 
steep  hills,  and  sometimes  wet  marl,)  on  120J  acres,  -        g258  38 

At  the  average  rate  of  57i  loads,  or  259  bushels  per  acre,  the 

average  expense  was,  to  the  acre, 2  08 

To  the  load,        ....        3  cents  and  63-100ths, 
And  to  the  bushel,       ...        0  83-lOOths. 

When  the  preceding  edition  of  this  essay  was  published,  (in  1835,)  the 
transportation  of  marl  by  water  had  been  but  recently  commenced.  Since, 
the  business  has  been  greatly  increased.  But  still  it  is  badly  conducted  in 
general,  and  therefore  is  much  more  costly  than  it  would  be  under  better 
and  proper  direction.  Farmers  are  averse  to  being  engaged  in  the  manage- 
ment of  vessels,  or  any  other  business  away  from  their  farms,  and  therefore 
they  have  always  preferred  to  buy  the  marl  from  vessels,  even  at  higher 
prices,  rather  than  to  have  it  dug  by  their  own  laborers  and  transported  in 
their  own  vessels.  And  this  division  of  labor  would  be  right  in  all  respects 
if  the  owners  of  the  river  lighters  were  better  managers  of  their  business, 
and  their  hands  were  industrious  and  sober.  For  rich  marl  thus  obtained 
and  transported,  the  prices  at  the  purchasers'  landings  have  usually  been 
from  1  to  5  cents  the  heaped  bushel.  And  at  these  high  prices,  the  lazy 
and  worthless  and  illy  provided  navigators  have  rarely  realized  any  pro- 
fit The  highest  price  charged  for  marl,  in  beds  on  the  river  banks,  is  a 
half  cent  the  bushel.  Under  existing  circumstances,  the  cheapest  and  best 
mode  of  obtaining  water-borne  marl  is  for  the  farmer  to  also  carry  on  the 
dicing  and  the  navigating.  And  if  the  several  operations  were  properly 
conducted,  the  entire  expense  of  water-borne  marl,  say  10  to  30  miles,  will 
rarely  exceed  three  cents  the  bushel  when  landed,  and  under  favorable  cir- 
cumstances may  fall  short  of  two  cents.  Collier  H.  Minge,  Esq.,  of  Charles 
City,  and  Dr.  Corbin  Braxton,  of  KiiiL'  William  county,  who  have  carried  on 
this  business  extensively,  and  for  years  in  succession,  for  marling  their  own 
Ecu  111s,  have  furnished  me  with  careful  and  detailed  estimates  of  their  expenses, 
which  have  been  published  at  length  in  the  Farmers'  Register,  p.  .""» < > 7"  vol.  i. 
and  p  691,  vol  viii.)  According  to  the  estimate  of  Mr.  Bftinge,  the  entire  cost 
of  thus  procuring  marl,  carried  15  miles  on  the  broad  water  of  James  river, 
amounted  to  less  than  two  cents  the  heaped  bushel,  when  landed.     And 


140  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 

Dr.  Braxton's  total  expense,  the  transportation  being  for  eight  miles  on  the 
narrow  and  smooth  Pamunkey,  was  but  little  more  than  half  a  cent  the 
bushel,  placed  at  his  landing.  No  charge  was  made  for  the  marl  in  either 
case,  but  every  other  charge  or  expense  was  included.  The  labor  and 
difficulties  on  James  river,  both  of  uncovering  and  digging  the  marl 
(at  Coggins  Point)  and  unloading  (on  a  shallow  creek)  were  unusually 
great;  and  on  the  Pamunkey  these  labors  were  very  light.  A  vessel  and 
also  a  mode  of  loading,  safe  in  strong  winds,  were  necessary  on  James 
river ;  while  no  such  danger  had  to  be  feared,  or  was  guarded  against,  on 
the  well  sheltered  Pamunkey  river.  So  much  of  the  business  in  both  these 
cases,  as  was  conducted  from  home,  necessarily  was  wanting  of  proper 
superintendence ;  and,  no  doubt,  both  of  these  undertakings  suffered  for 
that  important  deficiency,  as  in  all  cases  where  labor  is  on  a  small  scale  of 
operations,  and  more  especially  when  slave  labor  is  employed. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  USE  OF  CALCAREOUS  EARTH  RECOMMENDED  TO  PRESERVE  PUTRESCENT  MA- 
NURES, AND  TO  PROMOTE  CLEANLINESS  AND  HEALTH. 

The  operation  of  calcareous  earth  in  enriching  barren  soils  has  been 
traced,  in  a  former  part  of  this  essay,  to  the  chemical  power  possessed  by 
that  earth  of  combining  with  putrescent  matters,  or  with  the  products  of 
their  fermentation — and  in  that  manner  preserving  them  from  waste,  for 
the  use  of  the  soil,  and  for  the  food  of  growing  plants.  That  power  was 
exemplified  by  the  details  of  an  experiment,  (page  60,)  in  which  the  carcass 
of  an  animal  was  so  acted  on,  and  its  enriching  properties  secured.  That 
trial  of  the  putrefaction  of  animal  matter  in  contact  with  calcareous  earth, 
was  commenced  with  a  view  to  results  very  different  from  those  which 
were  obtained.  Darwin  says  that  7iiti-ons  acid  is  produced  in  the  process 
of  fermentation,  and  he  supposes  the  nitrate  of  lime  to  be  very  serviceable 
to  vegetation*  As  the  nitrous  acid  is  a  gas,  it  must  pass  off  into  the  air, 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  as  fast  as  it  is  formed,  and  be  entirely  lost. 
But  as  it  is  strongly  attracted  by  lime,  it  was  supposed  that  a  cover  of 
calcareous  earth  would  arrest  it,  and  form  a  new  combination,  which,  if 
not  precisely  nitrate  of  lime,  would  at  least  be  composed  of  the  same  ele- 
ments, though  in  different  proportions.  To  ascertain  whether  any  such 
combination  had  taken  place,  when  the  manure  was  used,  a  handful  of  the 
marl  was  taken,  which  had  been  in  immediate  contact  with  the  carcass, 
and  thrown  into  a  glass  of  hot  water.  After  remaining  half  an  hour,  the 
fluid  was  poured  off,  filtered,  and  evaporated,  and  left  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  a  white  soluble  salt,  (supposed  eight  or  ten  grains.)  I  could  not 
ascertain  its  kind— but  it  was  not  deliquescent,  and  therefore  could  not  have 
been  the  nitrate  of  lime.  The  spot  on  which  the  carcass  lay  was  so  strong- 
ly impregnated  by  this  salt,  that  it  remained  bare  of  vegetation  for  several 
years,  and  until  the  field  was  ploughed  up  for  cultivation. 

But  whatever  were,  the  products  of  fermentation  saved  by  this  experi- 
ment, the  absence  of  all  offensive  effluvia  throughout  the  process  sufficient- 
ly proved  that  little  or  nothing  was  lost,  as  every  atom  must  be,  when 
flesh  putrefies  in  the  open  air ;  and  I  presume  that  a  cover  of  equal  thick- 
ness of  clay,  or  sand,  or  any  mixture  of  both,  without  calcareous  earth, 

*  Darwin's  Phytologia,  pp   210  and  224      Dublin  edition. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES    PRACTICE.  j^j 

would  have  had  very  little  effect  in  arresting  and  retaining  the  aeriform 
products  ni  putrefaction.  All  the  circumstances  01  this  experiment,  and 
particularly  the  good  effect  exhibited  by  the  manure  when  put  to  use,  prove 
the  propriety  of  extending  a  similar  practice.     In   the  neighborhood  of 

towns,  or  wherever  else  the  carcasses  of  animals,  or  any  other  animal  sub- 
stances' subject  i"  rapid  and  wasteful  putrefaction,  can  be  obtained  in 
quantity,  all  (heir  enriching  powers  might  be  secured,  by  depositing 
between  layers  of  marl, or  calcareous  garth  in, any  other  form.     <  >n  the1 
borders  ol  the  Chowan,  ntities  of  Herrings  are  often  usi 

manure,  When  purchasers  cannot  take  ofl  the  myriads  supplied  by  the 
seines.  A  herring  is  buried  under  each  corn-hill,  and  fine  crops  are  thus 
made  as  far  as  this  singular  mode  of  manuring  is  extended.  13nt  what- 
ever benefits  have  been  thus  derived,  the  sense  of  smelling,  as  well  as  the 
known  chemical  products  of  the  process  of  animal  putrefaction,  make  it 
certain  that  nine-tenths  of  all  this  rich  manure,  when  so  applied,  must.be 
wasted  in  tin- air.  II  those  who  fortunately  possess  this  supply  of  animal 
manure  would  cause  the  fermentation  to  take  place  and  be  completely 
mixed  with  and  enclosed  by  marl,  in  pits  of  suitable  size,  they  would  in- 
■  prodigiously  both  the  amount  and  permanency  of  their  acting  ani- 
mal manure,  besides  obtaining  the  benefit  ol  the  mixed 
with  it. 

But  without  regarding  such  uncommon  or  abundant  sources  for  sup* 
plying  animal  matter,  every  fanner  may  considerably  increase  his  stock 
of  putrescent  manure  by  using  the  preservative  power  of  marl;  and  all 
the  substances  that  might  be  so  ;aved  are  not  only  now  lost  to  the  land, 
but  .serve  t"  con tan  i  white  putrefying,  and  perhaps  to  engender 

ies<     The  last  i  of  most  importance  to  towns,  though 

worthy  of  attention  every  where,  Whpever  will  make  the  trial  will  be 
surprised  to  find  how  much  putrescent,  matter  n  1,1  the 

dwelling-house,  kitchen,  and  laundry  of  a  family  i  and  which  if  accumu- 
lated (without  mixture  With  calcareous  earth. 1  Wi  itne  SO  offen- 
sive as  to  prove  the  necessity  ol  putting  an  end  to  the  practice.  Yet  it 
must  be  admitted  that  when  all  such  matte  ed  about,  (as  is 
usual  both  in  town  and  country  1  over  an  extended  surface,  the  same  putre- 
faction must  ensue,  and  the  same  noxious  effluvia  be  evolved,  though  not 
enough  concentrated  to  be  very  dfiensive,  or  even  always  perceptible. 
The  same  amount   is  inhaled — but   in  a   very   diluted   state,  and   in  small 

But  if  mild  calcareous  earth  in  any 
form  (and  fossil  shells  or  marl  present  much  the  cheapest)  is  ii>-c<\  to  cover 
and  mix  with  the  putreso  I,  they  will  be  prevented 

firom  d  !  to  enrich  the  soil.     A 

malignant  and  ever  acting  enemy  will  be  converted  to  a  hiend  and  bene' 
factor. 

The  usual  dispersioh   and  Waste  Of  such  putrescent    and  e .a  icmeiitilious 

matters  about  a  farm  house,  though  a  considerable  loss  (o  agriculture,  may 
take  p|  ., e  io  the  senses,  or  manifestly  in- 

jurious to  health.     But  thi  ly  different  in  towns.     There,  unless 

great  care  is  continually  used  to  remove  or  destroy  filth  of  every  kind,  11 
soon  becomes  offensive,  if  not  pestilential.     During  the  summer  ol 
when  that  raosj  horrible  1  e  human  race,  the    Lsiatl<   cholera, 

was  desoiat:  1  nited  States,  and  all  exp  1  ted  to 

•ted  by  its  fatal  ravases,  great  and  unusual  exertions  were 
where  used  to  remove  and  prevent  the  accumulation  of  filth,  which,   ii 
iiiowed  to  remain,  -.1  would  in vittf  the  approach,  and  aid 

pestilence.     The  efforts  made  for  that  purpose  served  to  -how 
IS 


j  42  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE 

what  a  vast  amount  of  putrescent  matter  existed  in  every  town,  and  which 
was  so  rapidly  reproduced,  that  its  complete  riddance  was  impossible.  Im- 
mense quantities  of  the  richest  manures,  or  materials  for  them,  were  washed 
away  into  the  rivers — caustic  lime  was  used  to  destroy  them — and  the 
chloride  of  lime  to  decompose  the  offensive  products  of  their  fermentation, 
when  that  process  had  already  occurred.  All  this  amount  of  labor  and  ex- 
pense was  directed  to  the  complete  destruction  of  what  might  have  given 
fertility  to  many  adjacent  fields — and  yet  served  to  cleanse  the  towns  but 
imperfectly,  and  for  a  very  short  time.  Yet  the  object  in  view  might  have 
been  better  attained  by  the  previous  adoption  of  the  proper  means  for  pre- 
serving these  putrescent  matters,  than  by  destroying  them.  These  means 
would  be  to  mix  or  cover  all  accumulations  of  such  matters  with  rich  marl, 
(which  would  be  the  better  for  the  purpose  if  its  shells  were  in  small  parti- 
cles.) and  in  such  quantity  as  the  effect  would  show  to  be  sufficient.  But 
much  the  greater  part  of  the  filth  of  a  town  is  not,  and  cannot  be  accumu- 
lated ;  and  from  being  dispersed-  is  the  most  difficult  to  remove,  and  is 
probably  the  most  noxious  in  its  usual  course  of  fermentation.  This  would 
be  guarded  against  by  covering  thickly  with  marl  the  floor  of  every  cellar 
and  stable,  back  yard  and  stable  lot.  Every  other  vacant  space  should  be 
lightly  covered.  The  same  course  pursued  on  the  gardens  and  other  culti- 
vated grounds  would  be  sufficiently  compensated  by  their  increased  products 
that  would  be  obtained.  But  independent  of  that  consideration,  the  ma- 
nures there  applied  would  be  prevented  from  escaping  into  the  air;  and 
being  wholly  retained  by  the  soil,  much  smaller  applications  would  serve. 
The  level  streets  ought  also  to  be  sprinkled  with  marl,  and  as  often  as  cir- 
cumstances might  require.  The  various  putrescent  matters  usually  Jeft  in 
the  streets  of  a  town  alone  serve  to  make  the  dirt  scraped  from  them  a 
valuable  manure;  for  the  principal  part  of  the  bulk  of  street  dirt  is  com- 
posed merely  of  the  barren  clay  brought  in  upon  the  wheels  of  wagons 
from  the  country  roads.  Such  a  cover  of  calcareous  earth  would  be  the 
most  effectual  absorbent  and  preserver  of  putrescent  matter,  as  well  as  the 
cheapest  mode  of  keeping  a  town  always  clean.  There  would  be  less 
noxious  or  offensive  effluvia  than  is  generated  in  spite  of  all  the  ordinary 
means  of  prevention  ;  and  by  scraping  up  and  removing  the  marl  after  it 
had  combined  with  and  secured  enough  of  putrescent  matter,  a  compost 
would  be  obtained  for  the  use  of  the  surrounding  country,  so  rich  and  so 
abundant,  that  its  use  would  repay  a  large  part,  if  not  the  whole  of  the  ex- 
pense incurred  in  its  production.  Probably  one  covering  of  marl  for  each 
year  would  serve  for  most  yards,  cellars,  &c. ;  but  if  required  oftener,  it 
would  only  prove  the  necessity  for  the  operation,  and  show  the  greater 
value  in  the  results.  The  compost  that  might  be  obtained  from  spaces 
equal  to  five  hundred  acres,  in  a  populous  town,  would  durably  enrich  thrice 
as  many  acres  of  the  adjacent  country ;  and  after  twenty  years  of  such  a 
course,  the  surrounding  farms  might  be  capable  of  returning  to  the  town  a 
ten-fold  increased  surplus  product.  After  the  qualities  and  value  of  the 
manure  so  formed  were  properly  estimated,  it  would  be  used  for  farms  that 
would  be  out  of  the  reach  of  all  other  calcareous  manures.  Carts  bringing 
country  produce  to  market  might  with  profit  carry  back  loads  of  this  com- 
post eight  or  ten  miles.  The  annual  supply  that  the  country  might  be  fur- 
nished with  would  produce  very  different  effects  from  the  putrescent  and 
fleeting  manure  now  obtained  from  the  town  stables.  Of  the  little  durable 
benefit  heretofore  derived  from  such  means,  the  appearance  of  the  country 
offers  sufficient  testimony.  At  three  miles  distance  from  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal towns  in  Virginia,  more  than  half  the  cultivated  land  is  too  poor  to 
yield  any  farming  profit.     The  surplus  grain  sent  to  market  is  very  incon- 


CALCAREOUS  MANOKES    PKACTICE.  143 

siderable— and  the  coarse  hay  from  the  wet  natural  meadows  can  only  be 
sold  to  tavern-keepers,  or  those  who  Feed  horses  belonging  to  other  persons 
—  and  to  whom  that  hay  is  the st  desirable  that  is  least  likely  to  be  eaten. 

But  even  if  the  waste  and  desti  uction  ol  manure  in  tow  ns  were  counted 
as  nothing,  and  the  preservation  ol  health  by  keeping  the  air  pure  were 
the  only  object  sought,  still  calcareous  earth,  .is  presented  by  rich  marl, 
would  serve  the  purpose  far  better  than  quick-lime.  It  is  true  that  the  lat- 
ter substance  acts  powerfully  In  decomposing  putrescent  animal  matter, 
and  destroys  its  texture  and  qualities  so  completely,  that  the  operation  is 
commonly  and  expressively  called  "burning"  the  substances  acted  on. 
But  to  use  a  sufficient  quantity  of  quick-lime  to  meet  and  decompose  all 
putrescent  animal  matters  in  a  town  would  be  intolerably  expensive,  and 
still  more  objectionable  in  other  respects.  If  a  cover  of  dry  quick-lime  in 
powder  was  spread  over  all  the  surfaces  requiring  it  for  this  purpose,  the 
town  would  be  unfit  to  live  in ;  and  the  nuisance  would  be  scarcely  less, 
when  rain  had  changed  the  suffocating  dust  to  an  adhesive  mortar.  Wool- 
len clothing,  carpets,  and  even  living  flesh,  would  be  continually  sustaining 
injury  from  the.  contact.  No  such  objections  would  attend  the  use  of  mild 
calcareous  earth ;  and  this  could  he  obtained  probably  for  less  than  one- 
fifth  of  the  cost  of  quick-lime,  supposing  an  equal  quantity  of  pure  calca- 
reous matter  to  be  obtained  in  each  case.  At  this  time  the  richest  marl  on 
James  river  may  be  obtained  at  merely  the  cost  of  digging,  and  its  carriage 
by  water,  which,  if  undertaken  on  u  large  scale,  could  not  exceed,  and  pro- 
bably would  not  equal,  two  cents  the  bushel.* 

The  putrescent  animal  matters  that  would  be  preserved  and  rendered 
innoxious  by  the  general  marling  of  the  site  of  a  town,  would  be  mostly 
such  as  are  so  dispersed  and  imperceptible  that  they  would  otherwise  be 
entirely  lost.  But  all  such  as  are  usually  saved  in  part  would  be  doubled 
in  quantity  and  value,  and  deprived  of  their  offensive  and  noxious  qualities, 
by  beiim  kept  mixed  with  calcareous'  earth.  The  importance  of  this  plan 
being  adopted  with  the  products  of  privies,  fcc.,  is  still  greater  in  town  than 
country.  The  various  matters  so  collected  and  combined  should  never  be 
applied  to  the  soil  alone,  as  the  salt  derived  from  the  kitchen,  and  the  potash 
and  soap  from  the  laundry,  might  be  injurious  in  so  concentrated  a  form. 
When  the  pit  for  receiving  this  compound  is  emptied,  the  contents  should 
be  spread  over  other  and  weaker  manure,  before  being  applied  to  the  field. 

Towns  might  furnish  many  other  kinds  of  rich  manure,  which  are  now- 
lost  entirely.  Some  of  these  particularly  require  the  aid  of  calcareous 
earth  to  be  secured  from  destruction  by  putrefaction,  and  others,  though 
not  putrescent,  arc  equally  wasted.  The  blood  of  slaughtered  animals, 
and  the  waste  and  rejected  articles  of  wool,  hair,  feathers,  skin,  horn  and 
bones,  all  are  manures  of  great  richness.  We  not  only  give  the  flesh  of 
dead  animals  to  infect  the  air,  instead  of  using  it  to  fertilize  the  land,  but 
their  bones,  which  might  be  so  easily  saved,  are  as  completely  thrown  away. 
Bones  are  composed  of  phosphate  of  lime  and  gelatinous  animal  matter, 
and,  when  crushed,  form  one  of  the  richest  and  most  convenient  manures 
in  the  world.  They  are  shipped  in  quantities  from  the  continent  of  Europe, 
and  latterly  even  from  this  country,  to  be  sold  for  manure  in  England. 
The  fields  of  battle  have  been  gleaned,  and  their  shallow  graves  emptied 
for  this  purpose:  and  the  bones  of  the  ten  thousand  British  heroes,  who  fell 
on  the  tield  of  Waterloo,  are  now  performing  the  less  glorious,  but  more 
useful  purpose  of  producing,  as  manure,  bread  for  their  brothers  at  home. 

*  Such  was  the  case  id  1833  when  this  part  was  first  published  ;  but  now  a  half  eenl 
the  bu<hrl  is  th<>  usual  price  charged  for  th*  best  marl,  a'  it  h»?  in  the  river  bank'. 


»     a 

144  CALCAREOUS  &LANORES— 1  I 

There  prevails  a  vulgar  but  useful  superstition,  that  there  is  "  bad  luck" 
in  throwing  into  the  lire  any  thing,  however  small  may  be  its  amount  or 
value,  that  can  serve  for  the  food  of  any  living  animal.  It  is  a  pity  that 
the  same  belief  does  not  extend  to  every  thing  that  as  manure  can  serve  ti  i 
feed  growing  plants— and  that  even  the  parings  of  nails  and  clippings  of 
beards  are  not  saved  (as  in  China)  for  this  purpose.  However  small  each 
particular  source  might  be,  the  amount  of  all  the  manures  that  might  be 
saved,  and  which  are  now  wasted,  would  add  incalculably  to  the  usual 
means  for  fertilization.  Human  excrement,  which  is  scarcely  used  at  all  in 
this  country,  is  stated  to  be  even  richer  than  that  of  birds;  and  if  all  the 
enriching  matters  were  preserved  that  are  derived  not  only  from  the  food. 
but  from  all  the  habits  of  man,  there  can  be  no  question  but  that  a  town  of 
ten  thousand  inhabitants,  from  those  sources  alone,  might  enrich  more  land 
than  could  be  done  from  as  many  cattle. 

The  opinions  here  presented  are  principally  founded  on  the  theory  of 
the  operation  of  calcareous  manures,  as  maintained  in  the  foregoing  part 
of  this  essay,  but  they  are  also  sustained  to  considerable  extent  by  facts 
and  experience.  The  most  undeniable  practical  proof  of  one  of  my  po- 
sitions is  the  power  of  a  cover  of  marl  to  prevent  the  escape  of  all  offen- 
sive effluvia  from  the  most  putrescent  animal  matters.  Of  this  power  I 
have  made  continued  use  for  about  eighteen  months,  and  know  it  to  be 
more  effectual  than  quicklime,  even  if  the  destructive  action  of  the  latter 
was  not  objectionable.  Quick-lime  forms  new  combinations  with  putrescent 
substances,  and,  in  thus  combining,  throws  off  effluvia,  which,  though 
different  from  the  products  of  putrescent  matter  alone,  are  still  disagreea- 
ble and  offensive.  Mild  lime  on  the  contrary  absorbs  and  preserves  every 
thing — or  at  least  prevents  the  escape  of  any  offensive  odor  being  perceived. 
Whether  putrescent  vegetable  matter  is  acted  on  in  like  manner  by  calca- 
reous earth  cannot  be  as  well  tested  by  our  senses,  and  therefore  the 
proof  is  less  satisfactory.  But  if  it  is  true  that  calcareous  earth  acts  by 
combining  putrescent  matters  with  the  soil,  and  thus  preventing  their  loss, 
(as  I  have  endeavored  to  prove  in  chapter  viii.)  it  must  follow  that,  to 
the  extent  of  such  combination,  the  formation  and  escape  of  all  volatile 
products  of  putrefaction  will  also  be  prevented. 

But  it  will  be  considered  that  the  most  important  inquiry  remains  to  be 
answered,  to  wit :  Has  the  application  of  calcareous  manures  been  found 
in  practice  decidedly  beneficial  to  the  health  of  the  residents  on  the  land! 
I  answer,  that  long  experience,  and'the  collection  and  comparison  of  nume- 
rous facts  derived  from  various  sources,  will  be  required  to  remove  all 
doubts  from  this  question ;  and  ft  would  be  presumptuous  in  any  individual 
to  offer  as  sufficient  proof,  the  experience  of  only  ten  or  twelve  years  on 
any  one  farm.  But  while  admitting  the  insufficiency  of  such  testimony,  I 
assert  that,  so  far,  [to  1S33,]  my  experience  decidedly  supports  my  position. 
My  principal  farm,  until  within  some  four  or  live  years,  was  subject  in  a  re- 
markable degree  to  the  common  mild  autumnal  diseases  o(  our  low 
country.  Whether  it  is  owing  to  marling,  or  other  unknown  causes,  these 
bilious  diseases  have  since  [to  1S33]  become  comparatively  very  rare. 
Neither  does  my  opinion  in  this  respect,  nor  the  facts  that  have  occurred 
on  my  farm,  stand  alone.  Some  other  persons  are  equally  convinced  of 
this  change  on  other  land  as  well  as  on  mine.  But  in  most  cases  where  I 
have  made  inquiries  as  to  such  results,  nothing  decisive  had  then  been  ob- 
served. The  hope  that  other  persons  may  be  induced  to  observe  and  re- 
port facts  bearing  on  this  important  point  has  in  part  caused  the  appear- 
ance of  these  crude  and  perhaps  premature  views. 

Even  if  my  opinions  and  reasoning  should  appear  sound,  I  am  aware 


CALl 

that  tin  ipplication  is  not  i<  ind  that  the 

scheme  of  using  marl  in  towns  is  more  likely  to  be  me!  by  ridicule,  ti. 
receive  a  serious  and  attentive  examination.     Notwithstanding  this  an- 
ticlpation,  and  however  hopeless  of  m  I  Individuals 

or  of  corporate  bodies,  I  will  ofifer  a  few  concluding  remarks  on  the 
obvious  objections  to,  and  benefits  of  the  plan.     The  objections  will 
all  be  resolved  into  one — namely,  the  exp  ncoiintered.    The 

expense  certainly  would  be  considerable ;  but  it  would  I  m  pen- 

sate  l  by  the  gains  and  benefits,  (n  the  first  place,  the  general  use  of  marl 
as  proposed,  for  towns,  would  serve  to  insure  cleanliness,  and  purity  of  the 
air,  more  than  all  the  labors  of  their  hoards  of  health  and  their  scaven 
even  when  acting  under  the  dread  of  approaching  pestilence  Secondly, 
the  putrescent  manures  produced  in  towns,  by  being  merely  preserved 
from  waste,  would  ed  ten-fold  in  quantity  and  value.     Thirdly, 

all  existing  nuisances  and  abominations  of  filth  would  be  at  an  end;  and 
the  beautiful  city  of  Richmond  (for  example)  would  not  give  offence  to  our 
nostrils,  almost  as  often  as  it  offers  gratification  to  our  eyes.  Lastly,  the 
marl,  (or  mild  lime,)  after  being  used  until  saturated  with  putrescent  matter, 
would  retain  all  its  first  value  as  calcareous  earth,  and  be  well  worth 
purchasing  and  removing  to  the  adjacent  farms,  independent  of  the  enrich- 
ing manure  with  whi(  h  it  would  be  loaded.  If  these  advantages  can  indeed 
be  obtained,  they  would  be  cheaply  bought  at  any  price  necessary  to  be 
encountered  for  the  purpose. 

The  foregoing  part  of  this  chapter  was  first  published  in  the  Farmers' 
-ter,  (for  July,  1833,)  as  supplementary  to  the  previous  edition  of  this 
essay.  That  publication  drew  some  attention  from  others  to  the  subject, 
served  to  elicit  many  important  facts,  of  which  I  had  been  before 
altogether  ignorant,  in  support  of  the  operation  of  calcareous  earth  in 
arresting  the  effects  of  malaria,  or  the  usual  autumnal  diseases  of  the 
southern  states  and  other  similar  regions.  These  facts,  together  with  the  re- 
sult of  my  own  personal  experience,  extended  through  two  more  autumns, 
(or  sickly  seasons,  as  commonly  called  here  and  farther  south.)  since  the 
first  publication  of  these  views,  will  now  be  submitted.     Most   of  the  facts 

derived  from  other  pert  ne  regiqn,  the  "'rotten  lime-stone 

lands"  of  southern  Alabama;  but  that  region  is  extensive,  is  of  remarkable 
and  well  known  character  and  peculiarities,  and  the  evidence  comes  from 
various  sources,  and  is  full,  and  consistent  in  purport.  The  facts  will  be 
here  presented  in  an  abridged  form.  The  several  more  full  communica- 
tions, from  which  they  are  drawn,  may  be  referred  to  in  the  Farmers'  Regis- 
ter, vol.  i.,  pp.  152,  214  an 

The  first  fact  brought  out  was  that,  in  the  town  of  Mobile  near  the 
Golf  of  Mexico,  the  streets  actually  had  been  paved  or  covered  with  shells 
— thus  presenting  precisely  such  a  case  as  I  recommended,  though  not  with 
any  view  to  promoting  cleanliness  or  health.  The  shells  had  been  used 
merely  as  a  substitute  fir  stones,  which  could  not  be  so  cheaply  obtained. 
Nor  had  the  greatly  Improved  healthiness  of  Mobile,  sini  •  were 

so  covered,  (of  which  there  is  the  most  ample  and  undoubted  testing 
been  attributed  to  that  cause,  until  the  publii  foregoing  opinions 

■■•I  to  connect  them  as  cause  and  effect.  This  can  scarcely  be  doubted 
by  those  who  will  admit  the  theory  of  the  action  of  calcareous  earth  ;  and 
the  remarkable  change  from  unhealthiness  in  Mobile,  to  comparative  healthi- 
iii'",  is  a  very  Strong  exemplification  of  the  truth  of  the  theory.  But 
it  is  not  strange,  when  so  many  other  causes  might  (and  probably  did) 
operate  to  arrest  disease,  that  none  should  have  considered  the  chemical 
operation  of  the  shelly  pavement  as  one  of  them,  and   still  less  as  the  one 


146  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE 

by  far  the  most  important.  The  paving  of  streets,  (with  an/  material,) 
draining  and  filling  up  wet  places,  substituting  for  rotting  wooden  buildings 
new  ones  of  brick  and  stone — and  especially  the  operation  of  destructive 
and  extensive  fires— all,  we  know,  operate  (and  particularly  the  last)  to  im- 
prove the  healthiness  of  towns ;  and  all  these  operated  at  Mobile,  as  well 
as  shelling  the  streets.  Neither  was  the  shelling  so  ordered  as  to  produce 
its  best  effect  for  health.  The  streets,  alleys,  and  many  yards  and  small 
vacant  lots  were  covered,  and  so  far  the  formation  and  evolving  of  pesti- 
lential effluvia  were  lessened.  But  as  this  was  not  the  object  in  view,  and 
indeed  the  chemical  action  of  shells  was  not  thought  of,  the  process  was  in- 
complete, and  must  necessarily  have  been  less  effectual  than  it  might  have 
been  made.  The  shelling  ought  to  have  been  extended  to  every  open  spot 
where  filth  could  accumulate — to  every  back  yard,  in  every  cellar,  and 
made  the  material  of  the  floor  of  every  stable,  and  every  other  building  of 
which  the  floor  would  otherwise  be  of  common  earth.  In  addition,  after 
a  sufficient  lapse  of  time  to  saturate  with  putrescent  matters  the  upper  part 
of  the  calcareous  layer,  and  thus  to  make  it  a  very  rich  compound,  there 
should  have  been  a  partial  or  total  removal  of  the  mass,  and  a  new  coating 
of  shells  laid  down.  The  value  of  the  old  material,  as  manure,  would  pro- 
bably go  far  towards  paying  for  this  renewal.  If  it  is  not  so  renewed,  the 
calcareous  matter  cannot  combine  with  more  than  a  certain  amount  of  pu- 
trescent matters  ;  and,  after  being  so  saturated,  can  have  no  further  effect 
in  saving  such  matters  for  use,  or  preventing  them  from  having  their  usual 
evil  course. 

The  burning  of  towns  is  well  known  to  be  a  cause  of  the  healthiness  of 
the  places  being  greatly  improved,  and  that  such  effect  continues  after  as 
many  buildings,  or  more,  have  replaced  those  destroyed  by  fire.  Indeed 
this  improvement  is  considered  so  permanent,  as  well  as  considerable,  that 
the  most  sweeping  and  destructive  conflagrations  of  some  of  our  southern 
towns  have  been  afterwards  acknowledged  to  have  proved  a  gain  and  a 
blessing.  The  principal  and  immediate  mode  of  operation  of  this  univer- 
sally acknowledged  cause  is  usually  supposed  to  be  the  total  destruction, 
by  the  fire,  of  all  filth  and  putrescent  matters ;  and  in  a  less  degree,  and 
more  gradually,  by  afterwards  substituting  brick  and  stone  for  wooden 
buildings,  which  are  always  in  a  more  or  less  decayed  state.  But  though 
these  reasons  have  served  heretofore  to  satisfy  all,  as  to  the  beneficial  con- 
sequences of  fires,  surely  they  are  altogether  inadequate  as  causes  for  such 
great  and  durable  effects.  The  mere  destruction  of  all  putrescent  matters 
in  a  town,  at  any  one  time,  would  certainly  leave  a  clear  atmosphere,  and 
give  strong  assurance  of  health  being  improved  for  a  short  time  afterwards. 
But  these  matters  would  be  replaced  probably  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months,  by  the  residence  of  as  many  inhabitants,  and  the  continuance  of 
the  same  general  habits ;  and  most  certainly  this  cause  would  lose  all  its 
operation  by  the  time  the  town  was  rebuilt.  But  there  is  one  operation 
produced  by  the  burning  of  a  town,  which  is  far  more  powerful — which  in 
fact  is  indirectly  the  very  practice  which  has  been  advocated — and  the 
effect  of  which,  if  given  its  due  weight,  furnishes  proof  of  the  theory  set 
forth,  by  the  experience  of  every  unhealthy  town  which  has  suffered  much 
from  fire.  If  a  fair  estimate  is  made  of  the  immense  quantity  of  mild  calca- 
reous earth  which  is  contained  in  the  plastering  and  brick- work  of  even  the 
wooden  dwelling-houses  of  a  town,  and  still  more  of  those  built  of  ma- 
sonry, it  must  be  admitted  that  all  that  material  being  separated,  broken 
down,  (soon  or  late,)  and  spread,  by  the  burning  of  the  houses  and  pulling 
down  their  ruins,  is  enough  to  give  a  very  heavy  cover  of  calcareous  earth 
to  the  whole  space  of  land  burnt  over.     It  is  to  this  operation,  in  a  far 


i 


CALCAKEOl'S  MANURES-l'UACTICE. 


147 


greater  degree  than  to  all  others,  that  I  attribute  the  beneficial  effects  to 
health  of  the  burning  of  towns. 

I  proceed  to  the  lacts  derived  from  the  extensive  body  of  prairie  lands  in 
Alabama  which  rest  on  a  substratum  of  soft  lime-stone,  or  rich  indurated 
clay  marl.  It  was  from  these  remarkable  soils  that  the  specimens  were 
obtained  which  were  described  at  pp.  42,  48.  Borne  of  these,  indeed  all  that 
have  been  examined  by  chemical  tests,  of  the  high  and  dry  prairie  lands, 
contain  calcareous  earth  in  larger  proportions  than  any  soils  of  considera- 
ble extent  in  the  United  States  that  I  have  seen  or  testeJ.  The  specimens 
not  containing  free  calcareous  earth  are  of  the  class  of  neutral  soils ;  and 
the  calcareous  earth,  which  doubtless  they  formerly  contained,  and  from 
which  they  derived  their  peculiar  and  valuable  qualities,  may  be  supposed 
only  to  be  concealed  by  the  accumulation  of  vegetable  matter,  according 
to  the  general  views  submitted  in  chapter  vii.  The  more  full  descriptions 
of  the  soils  of  this  remarkable  and  extensive  region  before  referred  to 
render  it  unnecessary  to  enlarge  much  here.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  sum 
up  concisely  the  facts  there  exhibited — and  which  agree  with  various  other 
private  accounts  which  have  been  received  from  undoubted  sources  of 
information.  The  deductions  from  these  lacts,  and  their  accordance  with 
the  theory  of  the  operation  of  calcareous  matter,  are  matters  of  reasoning, 
and,  as  such,  are  submitted  to  the  consideration  and  judgment  of  readers. 

The  soil  of  these  prairie  lands  is  very  rieh,  except  the  spots  where  the 
soft  lime-stone  rises  to  the  surface,  and  makes  the  calcareous  ingredient 
excessive.  In  the  specimen  formerly  mentioned,  the  pure  calcareous  matter 
formed  59  parts  in  the  100  of  this  "bald  prairie"  land.  The  soil  generally 
has  so  little  of  sand,  that  nothing  but  the  calcareous  matter  which  enters 
so  largely  into  its  composition  prevents  it  being  so  stiff  and  intractable, 
that  its  Ullage  would  be  almost  impracticable;  yet  it  is  friable  and  light 
when  dry,  and  easy  to  till.  But  the  superfluous  rain  water  cannot  sink 
and  pass  off,  as  in  sandy  or  other  pervious  lands,  but  is  held  in  this  close 
and  highly  absorbent  soil,  which  throughout  winter  is  thereby  made  a  deep 
mire,  unlit  to  prepare  for  tillage,  and  scarcely  practicable  to  travel  over. 
This  water-holding  quality  of  the  soil,  and  the  nearness  to  the  surface  of 
the  hard  and  impervious  marly  substratum,  deprive  the  country  of  natural 
springs  and  running  streams;  and  before  the  important  discovery  was 
made  that  pure  water  might  be  obtained  by  boring  from  300  to  700  feet 
through  the  solid  calcareous  rock,  the  inhabitants  used  the  stagnant  rain 
water  collected  in  pits,  which  was  very  far  from  being  either  pure  or  pala- 
table. Under  all  these  circumstances,  added  to  the  rank  herbage  of 
millions  of  acres  annually  dying  and  decomposing  under  a  southern  sun, 
it  might  have  been  counted  on,  as  almost  certain,  that  such  a  country 
would  have  proved  very  unhealthy.  Yet  the  reverse  is  the  fact,  and  in  a 
remarkable  degree.  The  healthiness  of  this  region  is  so  connected  with 
and  limited  by  the  calcareous  substratum  and  soil,  that  it  could  not  escape 
observation ;  and  they  have  been  considered  as  cause  and  effect  by  those 
who  had  no  theory  to  support,  and  who  did  not  spend  a  thought  upon  the 
mode  in  which  was  produced  the  important  result  they  so  readily  admitted. 
Their  testimony  therefore  is  in  this  respect  the  more  valuable,  because  it 
cannot  be  suspected  of  having  any  such  bias. 

To  the  time  when  this  last  publication  is  made,  (1842,)  there  has  been 
no  reason  to  doubt  the  actual  facts  of  autumnal  diseases  (the  effects  of 
malaria)  being  greatly  lessened  by  even  the  partial  use  of  marling;  nor 
the  inference  that  they  would  almost  cease  to  occur,  (if  no  mill-ponds  and 
undrained  lands  remained,)  if  all  the  surface  of  a  considerable  extent  of 
country  were  made  calcareous,  and  all  rapidly  putrescent  and  otherwisr 


J  48  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE 

offensive  matter  were  preserved  and  kept  harmless  by  being  combined 
with  marl,  applied  from  time  to  time  as  required.  But  it  should  be  re- 
membered that,  as  yet,  rapid  and  extensive  as  has  been  the  progress  of 
marling  in  Virginia,  there  has  been  no  instance  of  the  greater  part  of  any 
whole  neighborhood  of  so  much  as  a  few  miles  in  extent  being  marled ; 
nor  even  of  all  the  surface  of  any  one  farm;  and  that,  therefore,  we  have 
no  means  of  judging  by  experience  of  the  full  measure  of  benefit  to  be 
derived  from  such  a  general  change  of  the  character  of  the  soil.  The 
most  that  has  yet  been  done  any  where  is  the  marling  of  all  the  cultivated 
and  arable  land ;  leaving  unmarled,  and  as  much  as  ever  the  abundant 
sources  of  vegetable  decomposition  and  of  disease,  all  the  wood-land,  hill- 
sides, and  the  wet  bottoms.  Now,  as  the  remaining  wood-lands  are 
generally  among  the  poorest  of  our  soils,  that  is,  (according  to  the  theory 
maintained,)  soils  incapable  of  combining  with  and  retaining  the  products 
of  decomposition —  and  as  they  are  covered  annually  with  leaves,  which  in 
time  all  rot  and  their  gaseous  products  finally  pass  off  into  the  air—  it  fol- 
lows, that  the  lands  so  left  are  among  the  most  fruitful  of  malaria.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  remedy  is  but  partially  and  inefficiently  in  operation,  so 
long  as  from  one  third  to  one  half  of  every  farm  is  left  unmarled,  and  as 
free  as  ever  to  evolve  the  agent  of  disease.  So  sure  does  this  opinion  seem 
to  me,  that  I  have  commenced  acting  on  it,  by  marling  the  wood-land  that 
is  not  designed  to  be  cleared  for  cultivation —  and  shall  continue,  as  more 
necessary  labors  permit,  to  do  so,  until  not  an  acre  of  the  farm  is  left  with- 
out being  changed  in  character  by  calcareous  earth. 

It  is  proper  to  add,  as  an  opinion  founded  on  but  limited  experience  as 
yet,  that  though  the  cases  of  sickness  on  Coggins  Point  farm  have  cer- 
tainly diminished  very  greatly—  there  not  being  one  case  of  late  years  of 
bilious  diseases,  where  there  were  twenty  formerly— still  that  the  diseases 
seem  to  have  changed  in  kind,  and  to  have  increased  in  severity  and  danger. 
Formerly,  there  was  almost  no  sickness  except  from  ague  and  fever,  (or, 
very  rarely,  a  case  of  mild  bilious  fever,)  from  which,  though  few  persons 
escaped  through  the  autumn,  and  some  suffered  several  relapses,  the 
attacks  were  rarely  dangerous,  and  required  little  skill,  and  but  a  few 
days  to  cure,  for  that  time.  Bad  as  was  this  state  of  things,  it  seemed  that 
the  ague  and  fever  acted  as  a  safely- valve  to  the  system,  and  while  it  sel- 
dom permitted  the  enjoyment  of  long  continued  robust  health,  it  prevented 
the  occurrence  of  more  dangerous  or  fatal  diseases,  such  as  are  the  most 
common  among  the  fewer  diseases  of  what  are  deemed  healthy  regions. 
The  fewer  diseases  of  my  adult  negroes  for  the  last  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  have  been  of  a  more  inflammatory  kind,  and  are  not  confined  to 
autumn  ;  and  there  have  been  certainly  more  severe  and  fatal  diseases,  and 
more  that  required  medical  aid,  than  formerly,  when  there  was  so  much 
more  of  sickness  of  one  kind,  and  confined  to  one  season.  In  short,  it 
seems  that  the  diseases  are  no  longer  (or  but  in  few  cases)  those  of  the 
low  country  and  of  a  bilious  climate,  but  are  more  like  those  of  the  upper 
country,  which,  though  occurring  but  rarely,  are  generally  of  a  more 
serious  nature.  The  facts  on  which  this  particular  opinion  has  been  formed, 
are  still  too  few,  and  of  too  short  continuance,  to  attach  to  them  much  im- 
portance ;  and  even  if  they  were  less  doubtful,  I  have  not  the  medical 
knowledge  to  trace  these  new  effects  back  to  their  causes.  Still,  it  is 
deemed  due  to  candor,  and  to  the  desire  for  a  fair  and  lull  investigation  of 
the  subject,  even  if  making  against  my  own  views,  that  these  opinions 
should  be  stated.  There  is  no  other  subject,  than  this,  taken  in  general, 
which  more  deserves  and  requires  .investigation  ;  and  in  the  present  in- 
choate state  of  the  discussion,  the  expression  of  even  erroneous  opinions 


I   u.<  AREOI  -  M  \M  RES)     PR  \'   l  [(  i  .    140 

will  not  be  useless,  if"  it  should  serve  t"  elicit  more  full  or  correct  ones  from 
other  sources. 

Nothing  better  than  this  one  aubjecl  deserves  Investigaton  by  medical 
men,  acting  Under  ;  eminent    Tl  for  informa- 

tion are  now  abundant,  iii.il>  ibservation  of  the  nume- 

roos' farmers  who  have  marled  or  lii I  their  lands  long  enough  to  judge 

of  the  effects  on  health ;  and  whether  upon  tru \ false  grounds,  the  opi- 
nion among  such  persons  seems  now  1 18  12)  almost  universal,  (so  far  as  I 
have  beard  opinions  expressed,)  thai  the  prevalence  pf  autumnal  diseases, 
the  product  of  malaria,  has  been  Invariably  and  manifestly  lessened  since 
the  lands  were  in  past  marled  or  limed.  My  individual  experience  and  ob- 
servations on  this  point,  now  of  nine  years'  more  extent  than  when  the  first 
limits  thereof  were  stated  in  a  foregoing  part  of  this  chapter,  concur  with 
the  more  general  and  loose  Information  derived  from  others,  in  confirming 
my  position.  It  sometimes  happens  that  the  very  fact  of  an  opinion  being 
universally  admitted  prevents  the  obtaining  such  proofs  of  its  truth  as 
would  certainly  have  been  ready,  if  the  opinion  had  been  questioned  and 
denied  by  many  skeptics.  And  stich  is  the  state  of  the  proposition  now 
under  consideration.  Kven  in  the  lew  years  which  have  passed  since  I 
first  advanced  the  opinion  that  the  use  of  calcareous  manures  served  to 
improve  health,  that  opinion  has  become  so  general,  and  is  deemed  so  cer- 
tain and  unquestionable,  by  those  persons  who  have  used  those  manures, 
that  but  few  facts  can  be  learned  of  them  sufficiently  exact  to  serve  as  proofs  ; 
because  no  person  hasdeemed  i'  netesaary  to  collect,  and  preserve  proofs  of 

what  none  doubted.    When  asking  lor  such  p fs,  .is  I  have  often  done,  of 

cultivators  and  residents  in  various  pints  of  the  marl  region,  I  have  rarely 
obtained  any,  except  new  declarations,  frota  every  person  interrogated,  of 
concurrence  and  entire  faith  in  the  general  opinion  that  marling  or  liming 
had  served  greatly  to  abate  the  prevalence  of  autumnal  diseases.  PUeh  ge- 
neral belief  and  confidence  in  an  opinion  so  recently  entertained  and  pro- 
mulgated, cannot  be  altogether  founded  on  error. 

When  my  opinions  of  the  beneficial  operation  of  calcareous  earth  in  soil, 
or  mixed  with  putrescent  matter,  in  destroying  or  disarming  the  sources  of 
disease,  were  first  published,  and  until  after  the  last  publication  of  the  same 
in  1835,  I  had  no  knowledge  that  similar  grounds  ha  1  been  taken  by  any 
other  person.  But  since,  in  the  recent  publications  of  a  French  writer, 
M.  I'uvis,  I  have  found  the  same  general  opinion  expressed,  and  many  im- 
portant facts  given  In  confirmation  However,  while]  gladly  accept  the  im- 
portant aid  of  M.  Puvis'  beta,  as  proof,  I  do  not  admit  the  correctness  of  his 
reasoning  thereupon.  Seme  Of  the. former  will  be  quoted  in  the  following 
Lges.  For  his  full  views,  see  the  translations  of  his  essays  'On  Lime 
as  Manure,'  and  'On  Marl,'  both  contained  in  vol.  Hi.  of  the  Farmers'  Re- 
gister. 

"The  results  of  marling  may  be  considered  in  a  point  of  view  more  ele- 
vated, and  still  more  important  than  that  of  the  fertility  which  it  gives  to 
the  soil;  they  may  perhaps  have  much  influence  on  the  healthiness  of  a 
country  where  it  becomes  a  general  pra 

"  Although  it  may  not  have  been  yet  uttered  by  others,  this  opinion  ap- 
pears founded  on  strong  probabilities,  on  strong  analogies  and  precise  I 
all  of  which  appear  to  give  it  a  sufficient  certainty. 

"It  is  known  that  the  calcareous  principle  is  one  of  the  most  powerful 
agents  to  resist  putrefaction.  It  is  employed  to  make  healthy  places  inha- 
by  men  and  animals,  in  which  sickness  or  contagion  is  feared;  it 
serves  to  neutralize  the  emanations  of  dead  bodies  undergoing  putrefaction  ; 
it  destroys  the  deleterious  exhalations  which  escape  from  privies,  and  which 
sometimes  cause  the  death  of  those  who  are  employed  to  cleanse  them. 
19 


I  r)(j  .  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PRACTICE. 

"  It  even  seems  that  calcareous  countries  are  unhealthy  only  when  they 
are  interspersed  by  marshes,  or  when  some  causes,  foreign  to  the  soil  and 
climate,  determine  ihe  unhealthiness,  as  in  countries  on  the  borders  of  the 
sea,  where  the  flowing  of  the  tide  and  the  mingling  of  salt  and  fresh  wa- 
ters infect  the  air,  by  the  deleterious  emanations  of  their  combination. 
This  cause  of  unhealthiness  is  regarded  as  a  certain  fact ;  for  salubrity  is 
generally  seen  to  appear  whenever  this  mixture  of  waters  is  prevented. 

'•  In  the  valleys  of  rivers  bordered  by  calcareous  mountains,  which  enclose 
unhealthy  countries  in  their  interior,  insalubrity  commences  there  only  as 
the  calcareous  soil,  which  is  attached  to  the  mountain,  gives  place  to  sili- 
cious  soil.  In  the  same  plain,  and  far  from  a  mountain,  salubrity  is  seen  to 
diminish  in  the  same  proportion  that  the  calcareous  soil  of  the  surface  does; 
and  the  communes  of  Bresse,  which  have  an  abundance  of  marly  or  calca- 
reous soils,  are  much  more  remarkable  for  their  salubrity  than  those  on 
the  white  lands  {terrain  blanc*.)  While  the  ponds  of  Dombe,  which  are 
on  the  silicious  soil,  appear  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  causes  of  unhealthi- 
ness, those  of  Bresse,  which  are  on  calcareous  lands,  do  not  show  such 
effects  in  the  country  where  they  are  found  ;  so,  likewise,  the  ponds  of  the 
country  situated  between  the  Veyle  and  the  Reyssouze,  to  the  north-west 
of  Bourg,  which  are  generally  on  calcareous  soil,  do  not  appear  to  injure 
the  healthiness  of  the  country  in  any  manner. 

"For  the  support  of  this  system,  we  will  also  cite  the  ponds  of  Berri  on 
calcareous  soil,  whose  emanations  have  nothing  unhealthy;  the  laying  dry 
of  the  ponds  of  Parragay,  in  the  canton  of  Lignieres,  has  added  nothing  to 
the  healthiness  of  a  calcareous  country  naturally  healthy.  And  in  the  same 
canton,  the  pond  of  Villiers,  which  is  said  to  be  seven  leagues  in  circum- 
ference, does  not  cause  diseases  on  its  borders.  Besides,  during  the  month 
of  August,  the  water  of  the  ponds  on  calcareous  soil  does  not  become 
blackish,  as  often  happens  in  silicious  ponds.  The  water  would  then  be 
made  wholesome  by  the  calcareous  principle,  in  the  same  way  as  their 
emanations. 

"In  fine,  Dombe  and  Sologne,  and  a" number  of  other  countries  are  un- 
healthy, and  subject  to  intermittent  fevers,  without  being  marshy ;  but  their 
soil  is  likewise  silicious,  and  the  land  moist.  Puisaye,  and  a  part  of  Bresse, 
in  similar  land,  which  contain  little  or  no  calcareous  soil,  have  also  many 
autumnal  fevers."—  (Translation  from  '  Essai  sur  la  Ma  me.") 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

DIRECTIONS  FOR  THE  MECHANICAL  OPERATIONS  OF  APPLYING  MARL  AS  MANURE. 

The  great  deposite  of  fossil  shells,  which  custom  has  miscalled  marl,  is 
in  many  places  exposed  to  view  in  most  of  the  lands  that  border  on  our 
tide-waters,  and  on  many  of  their  small  tributary  streams.  Formerly,  it 
was  supposed  to  be  limited  to  such  situations;  but  since  its  value  as  a  ma- 
nure has  caused  it  to  be  more  noticed  and  sought  after,  marl  has  been 
found  in  many  other  places.  It  is  often  discovered  by  the  digging  of  wells, 
but  lying  so  deep  that  its  value  must  be  more  highly  estimated  than  at 

*  The  reader  of  M.  Puvis'  essays  on  lime  and  marl,  which  were  inserted  in  vol.  iii., 
may  remember  that  this  provincial  term  and  others  (plateaux  argillosilicieux,  &c.)  were 
there  used  to  designate  a  peculiar  kind  of  soil,  destitute  of  calcareous  matter,  stiff,  in- 
tractable and  poor— and  which  seems  precisely  of  the  character  of  the  poor  ridge  lands 
of  lower  Virginia,  to  which  calcareous  manures  are  so  peculiarly  adapted. —  Translator. 


.. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES    PRACTICE.  |5| 

present  before  it  will  be  dug  for  manure.  From  ;ill  the  scattered  evidences 
of  the  presence  of  tins  deposite,  it  may  be  inferred  that  it  lies  beneath 
nearly  every  pari  of  our  o itry  between  (he  sea  and  the  granite  ridge 

which  forms  tin'  I'.ilis  d  all  our  rivers.  It  is  exposed  where  it  rises,  and 
where  cut  through  by  the  deep  ravine  i  of  hilly  land  and  by  the  courses  of 
rivers— and  concealed  by  its  dips,  and  the  usual  level  surface1  of  the  coun- 
try. The  rich  tracts  of  neutral  soil  on  James-river,  such  as  Shirley,  West- 
over,  Brandon,  and  Sandy  Point,  seem  to  have  been  formed  byalluvi 

which  may  he  termed  recent  compared  to  that  of 'our  .district  In  general; 
and  iii  these  no  marl  has  been  found,  though  it  is  generally  abundant  in 
the  adjacent  higher  lands.  Fresh-water  muscle  shells  are  sometimes  found 
in  thin  layers,  (from  a  lew  inches  to  twe  feet  thick,)  both  on  these  lands  and 
ethers — but  generally  near  the  surface,  and  always  far  above  the  deposite 
of  sea  shells,  found  under  the  high  land.  These  two  layers  of  different 
kinds  of  shells  are  separated  by  a  thickness  of  main-  feel  of  earth,  contain- 
ing no  shells  of  any  kind.  Muscle  shells  are  richer  than  the  others,  as 
they  contain  much  gelatinous  and  enriching  animal  matter,  t 'n  this  ac- 
count, the  earth  with  which  muscle  shells  are  found  mixed  is  a  rich  black 
mould.  Most  persons  consider  these  beds  of,  muscle  shells  as  artificially 
formed  by  the  Indians,  who  are  supposed  to  have  collected  the  muscles  for 
food,  and  left  the  shells  where  the  fish  were  consumed.  There  are  some 
strong  reasons  which  may  be  adduced  both  to  sustain  and  to  oppose  this 
opinion.  But  whatever  may  be  the  origin  of  these  collections  of  muscle 
shells,  it  does  not  affect  their  qualities  as  manure  for  the  soils  in  which 
they  are  found,  or  for  others  to  which  they  may  Be  removed. 

Neither  the  fossil  sea  shells,  nor  the  earth  mixed  with  them,  are  supposed 
to  contain  any  important  OT  considerable  proportion  of  putrescent  matter 
— and  this  manure  has   been   consi  "lit  this  essay  as  being 

valuable  aiity  a*  containing  calcareous  earth.  This,  no  doubt,  is  the  only 
Ingredient  of  any  worth,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases.  But  sometimes 
there  are  other  Ingredients— which  must  be  considered  merely  as  excep- 
tions to  the  general  rule.  One  of  these  exceptions  has  already  been  staled 
in  the  description  of  gypseous  marl,  (page  92  ..;  and  some  others  have  been 
discovered  since  the  publication  of  that  statement  A  kind  of  earth,  contain 
ing  a  large  proportion  of  carbonate  ol  as   well  as  of  carbonate 

nate  of  lime,  has  been  found  in  Hanover  county.  Va.     (Furmers''  Register, 

rol.  i.  Rogers,  of  Willi and  Mary  College;  has  discovered,  in 

many  of  the  marls  of  lower  Virginia*,   some  proportion  »f  the  "green 

sand"  of  geologists,  01   What  is  itself  called  "marl,"  (another  misapplication 

of  that  name.)  in  Mew  Jersey,  and  which  has  there  been  found  highly  va 
luable  as  manure,  I  lining  not  a  particle  ofthe  carbonate  ol  lin    , 

which  constitutes  the  sole  value  of  shi  manures  in  gene- 

ral    The  foi  matii  m  or  body  ol  and  distinct  from 

any  marl,  I  had  discovered   long  before,  and  of  which  a  full  account  will  be 

given  in  a  subsequent  part  of  tbi  i  essay     But  however  interesting  may  be 
the  discovery  of  these  different  ingredients  of  particular  bodiaiBof  marl, 
and  however  valuable  they    may  prove  as  manures,  still    they  are  net  | 
I' I'd  as  tieated  of  in  this  essay  under  any-general  observatic 
mart —  which  observations  are  «  applied  simply  to  manure  of 

which  the  only  useful  ingredient  is  the  '    linn'. 

1,111  a  hundred    kinds  of  sea  shells  are  found  in   the  beds  of  marl, 

that  I  have  worked,  without  counting  any  of  very  snail  size.     Many  kinds 

would  escape  common  observation,  and  others  would   require  the  aid  ol  a 

magnifying  the  shells,  though  fragile, 

much  broken   by  tl  id  after-operations.    The 


|52  CALCAREOUS  MANURES—  PRACTICE. 

white  shells  are  rapidly  reduced,  after  being  mixed  with  an  acid  soil ;  but 
some  aray  kinds,  as  the  scallop  and  the  oyster,  are  so  hard  as  to  be  very 
long  before  they  can  act  as  manure.  Some  beds,  and  they  are  generally 
the  richest,  have  scarcely  any  whole  shells,  but  are  formed  principally  of 
small  broken  fragments.  Of  course  the  value  of  marl  as  a  manure  de- 
pends in  some  measure  on  which  kinds  of  shells  are  most  numerous,  and 
their  state  of  division,  as  well  as  upon  the  total  amount  of  the  calcareous 
earth  contained.  The  last  is  however  by  far  the  most  important  criterion 
of  value.  The  most  experienced  eye  may  be  much  deceived  in  the 
strength  of  marl :  and  still  more  gross  and  dangerous  errors  would  be  made 
by  an  inexperienced  marler.  The  strength  of  a  body  of  marl  often 
changes  materially  in  sinking  a  foot  in  depth — although  the  same  changes 
maybe  expected  to  occur  very  regularly,  in  every  pit  sunk  through  the 
same  bed.  Whoever  uses  marl  ought  to  know  how  to  analyze  it,  which 
a  little  care  will  enable  any  one  to  do  with  sufficient  accuracy.  The  me- 
thod described,  at  page  35,  for  ascertaining  the  proportions  of  calcareous 
earth  in  soils,  will  of  course  serve  for  the  same  purpose  with  marl.  But  as 
more  particular  and  minute  directions  may  be  necessary  for  many  persons 
who  will  use  this  manure,  and  who  ought  to  be  able  to  judge  of  its  value, 
such  directions  will  be  here  given,  and  which  any  one  can  follow  by  mere- 
ly applying  sufficient  attention  and  care.  To  perform  this  process  will  re- 
quire no  other  chemical  tests  than  muriatic  acid  and  carbonate  of  potash, 
and  no  apparatus,  except  small  scales  and  weights,  a  glass  funnel  and 
some  blotting  or  very  porous .  printing  paper— all  of  which  may  be  bought 
at  any  apothecary's  shop. 

Directions  for  analyzing  marl  by  solution  and  precipitation. 

1st.  Take  a  lump  of  marl,  fossil  shells,  &c,  large  enough  to  furnish  a 
fair  sample  of  the  particular  body  under  consideration— dry  it  perfectly 
near  the  fire— pound  the  "whole  to  a  coarse  powder  (in  a  metal  mortar,) 
and  mix  the  whole  together.  Take  from  the  mixture  a  small  sample, 
which  reduce  to  a  finely  divided  state,  and  weigh  of  it  a  certain  portion, 
say  50  grains,  for  trial. 

2d.  To  this  known  quantity,  in  a  glass,  pour  slowly  and  at  different  times 
muriatic  acid  diluted  with  three  or  four  times  its  bulk  of  water — (any  ex- 
cept limestone,  or  hai-d  water.)  The  acid  will  dissolve  all  the  lime  in  the 
calcareous  earth,  and  let  loose  the  carbonic  acid,  with  which  it  was  pre- 
viously combined,  in  the  form  of  gas,  or  air,  which  causes  the  effervescence, 
which  so  plainly  marks  the  progress  of  such  solution.  The  addition  of  the 
muriatic  acid  must  be  continued  as  long  as  it  produces  effervescence ;  and 
but  very  little  after  that  effect  has  ceased.  The  mixture  should  be  well 
and  often  stirred,  and  should  have  enough  excess  of  acid  to  be  sour  after 
standing  thirty  or  forty  minutes.  (So  much  of  the  acid  as  the  lime  com- 
bines with  loses  its  sour  taste,  as  well  as  its  other  peculiar  qualities.) 

The  mixture  now  consists  of  1,  the  lime  combined  chemically  with 
muriatic  acid,  forming  muriate  «/  tone,  which  is  a  salt,  and  which  is  dis- 
solved in  the  water— 2,  a  small  excess  of  muriatic  acid  mixed  with  the 
fluid — and  3,  the  sand,  clay  and  any  other  insoluble  parts  of  the  sample  of 
marl.  To  separate  the  solid  from  the  fluid  and  soluble  parts  is  the  next 
step  required. 

3rd.  Take  a  piece  of  filtering  or  blotting  paper,  about  six  or  eight  inches 
square,  (some  spongy  and  unsized  newspapers  serve  well.)  fold  it  so  as  to 
fit  within  a  glass  funnel,  which  will  act  better  if  its  inner  surface  is  fluted. 
Pour  water  first  into  the  filter,  so  as  to  see  whether  it  is  free  from  any  hole, 


CALCAREOUS  MANUKES-l'KACTICE.  1 53 

or  defect;  if  the  filtering  paper  operates  well,  .throw  out  the  water,  and 
pour  into  it  the  whole  mixture.  The  Quid  will  slowly  pass  through  into  a 
glass  under  the  funnel,  leaving  on  the  filter,  all  the  stolid  parts,  on  which 

water  must  be  poured  once  Dr  twice,  so  as  to  wash  out,  and.  convey  to  the 
in,  every  remaining  particle  of  the  dissolved  lime. 

•lth.  The  solid  matter  left,  alter  being  thus  washed,  must  he  taken  out  of 
the  funnel  on  the  paper,  and  carefulrj  My  dried— then"  scraped 

off  the  paper  and  weighed.     The  wi  l\   grains,  being  deducted 

from  the  original  quantity,  5Q,  would  make  the  part  dissolved  (50 — 27= 
23)  46  per  cent.  Of  the  whole.  And  such  may  be  taken  as  very  nearly 
the  proportion  o{'  calcareous  earth  (or  carbonate  of  lime)  in  the  earth 
examined.  But  as  there  will  necessarily  be  some  loss  in  the  process,  and 
every  grain  taken  from  the  solid  parts  appears  in  the  result  as  a  grain 
added  to  the  carbonate  of.  lime,  it  will  be  right  in  such  partial  trials  to 
allow  about  two  per  cent,  for  loss,  which  allowance  will  reduce  the  forego- 
ing statement  to  44  per  cent  of  carbonate  of  lime. 

5th.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  rely  altogether  on  the  estimate  obtained 
by  subtraction,  as  it  may 'be  proved  by  comparison  with  the  next  step  of 
the  process.  Into  the  solution  (and  the  washings-)  which  passed  through 
the  filter,  pour  gradually  a  solution  of  carbonate  of  potash.  The  first 
effect  of  the  alkaline  substance,  thus  added,  will  be  to  take  up  any 
excess  of  muriatic  acid  in  the  fluid — and  next,  to  precipitate  the  lime  (now 
converted  again  to  carbonate  of  lime,)  in  a  thick  curd-like  form.  When 
the  precipitation  is  ended,  and  the  fluid  retains  a  strong  taste  of  the  carbo- 
nate of  potash,  (showing  it  to  remain  in  excess,)  the  whole  must  be  poured 
on  another  filtering  paper,  and  (as  before,)  the  solid  matter  left  thereon  re- 
peatedly washed  by  pouring  on  water,  then  .hied,  scraped  off,  and  weighed. 
This  will  be  the  actual  proportion  of  the  calcareous  part  of  the  sample,  ex- 
cept, perhaps,  a  loss  of  one  or  two  grains  in  the  hundred.  The  loss,  there- 
fore, in  this  part  of  the  process  apparently  lessens,  as  the  loss  in  the  earlier 
part  increases  the  statement  of  the  strength  of  the  manure.  The  whole 
may  be  supposed  to  stand  then  : 

27  grains  of  sand  and  clay  i 

21  of  carbonate  of  lime  V=50. 

2  of  loss  j 

If  the  loss  be  divided  between  the  carbonate  of  lime  and  the  other  worth- 
less parts  of  the  manure,  it  will  make  the  proportion  28  and  22,  which  will 
be  probably  near  the  actual  proportions. 

The  foregoing  method  is  not  the  most  exact,  but  is  sufficiently  so  for 
practical  use.  All  the  errors  to  which  it  is  liable  will  not  much  affect  the 
reported  result— unless  magnesia  is  present,  and  that  is  not  often  in  ma- 
nures of  this  nature.  Magnesia  is  ijever  found  (1  believe)  in  the  deposites 
of  fossil  shells— nor  have  I  known  of  its  presence  in  any  of  the  earthy  ma- 
nures, except  lime-stone,  and  the  inagnesian  marl  discovered  inlJ' 
If  any  con-'  in  of  carbonate  of  magnesia  should  ever  be 

present  in  marl  tried  by  the  foregoing  method,  it  may  bo  suspected  by 
the  effervescence  being  very  slow  compared  to  that  of  carbonate  of  lime 
alone;  and  the  proportions  of  these  two  earths  may  be  ascertained  as  fol- 
lows. The  magnesia  as  well  as  the  lime  wonld  1  by  the  mu- 
riatic acid,  (applied  as  above  directed,)  but  the  magnesia  would  not  b 
cipitated  with  the  carbonate  of  lime,  but  would  remain  dissolved  in  the 
alkaline  solution,  last  separated  by  filtering.  If  this  liquor  is  poured  into  a 
Florence  flask  and  boiled  for  a  quarter  of  an  hbiir,  the  carbonate  of  mag- 
nesia will  fall  to  the  bottom,  and  may  then  be  separated  by  filtering  and 
washing,  and  its  quantity  ascertained  by  being  dried  and  weighed.     This 


154  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE 

part  of  the  process  may  be  easily  added  to  the  foregoing —  but  it  will  very 
rarely  be  required. 

If  desired,  the  proportion  of  silicious  and  aluminous  earth  may  be  ascer- 
tained, with  enough  truth  for  practical  use,  by  stirring  well  these  parts 
(minutely  divided)  in  a  glass  of  water,  and  after  letting  it  stand  a  minute,  for 
the  sand  to  subside,  pouring  off  the  fluid  into  another  glass.  The  sand 
will  be  left,  and  the  finely  divided  earth  and  clay  pass  off  with  the  water, 
and  may  be  separately  collected  and  dried  on  filtering  paper,  and  weighed. 

For  want  of  attention  to  the  only  safe  guide,  the  chemical  analysis  of 
marl,  gross  errors  are  often  committed,  and  losses  continually  sustained. 
By  relying  on  the  eye  only,  I  have  known  marl,  or  rather  a  calcareous 
sand,  to  be  rejected  as  worthless,  and  thrown  off  at  considerable  cost  of 
labor,  to  uncover  worse  marl  below,  in  which  whole  shells  were  visible  ;  and 
on  the  contrary,  earth  has  been  taken  for  marl,  and  used  as  such,  which 
had  no  calcareous  ingredient  whatever.  The  best  marls  for  profitable  use 
are  generally  such  as  show  the  fewest  whole  shells,  or  even  large  frag- 
ments—and would  be  passed  by  unnoticed  in  some  cases,  or  considered 
only  as  barren  sand,  or  equally  worthless  clay.  But  even  if  such  mistakes 
as  these  are  avoided,  every  farmer  using  marl,  without  analyzing  specimens 
frequently  and  accurately,  will  incur  much  loss  by  applying  it  in  quantities 
either  too  great  or  too  small. 

If  marl  reaches  the  surface,  or  "  crops  out,"  any  where,  it  may  be  found 
most  easily  by  examining  the  beds  of  streams  passing  through  the  lowest 
land,  or  deepest  ravines.  A  few  of  the  smallest  particles  of  shells  found 
there  will  prove  that  the  stream  passes  through  marl  somewhere  above; 
and  a  careful  examination  continued  towards  the  source,  will  scarcely  fail 
to  discover  where  the  bed  lies.  Its  usual  direction  is  horizontal,  or  very 
little  inclined;  and  therefore  if  discovered  any  where  along  the  sides  of  a 
narrow  valley,  it  may  generally  be  found  by  digging  on  the  opposite  side,  or 
elsewhere  not  very  distant  at  the  same  elevation  on  the  hill-side ;  and  it  is 
always  nearer  the  surface  on  swells,  or  the  convex  parts  of  the  hill-side,  than 
where  it  retreats  and  forms  hollows.  In  the  more  level  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, the  marl  sometimes  is  very  near  the  surface  of  the  lowest  land,  and  yet 
is  not  visible  any  where.  In  such  situations,  particularly,  a  cheap  and  con- 
venient auger  may  be  used  with  much  advantage  in  searchh.g  for  marl; 
and  it  is  also  useful  to  try  the  depth  or  quality  of  a  bed,  even  when  its  sur- 
face has  been  found.  This  tool  may  be  made  by  welding  a  straight  stem, 
half  an  inch  square  and  six  or  seven  feet  long,  to  a  common  screw  auger 
of  about  one  inch  and  a  half  bore.  If  it  has  been  so  much  worn  as  to  be 
useless  as  a  carpenter's  tool,  it  will  serve  for  boring  in  earth.  A  cross-piece 
for  a  handle  should  be  fixed  to  slide  over  the  stem,  and  be  fastened  by  a 
small  screw  at  different  elevations,  as  most  convenient.  Other  pieces  may 
be  added  to  the  stem,  attached  by  joints,  so  as  to  bore  twelve  or  more  feet 
deep.  Dr.  Wm.  I.  Cocke,  formerly  of  Sussex,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for 
this  simple  but  useful  tool,  was  enabled  by  its  use  to  find  a  very  valuable 
bed  of  marl  which  was  no  where  visible  at  the  surface,  and  which  he 
used  to  great  extent  and  advantage. 

Mr.  Williams  Carter,  of  Hanover,  has  introduced  a  simple  and  useful 
improvement  which  greatly  facilitates  the  use  of  the  cheap  and  light  auger 
just  described.  When  one  or  more  additional  joints  are  required,  (for  bor- 
ing to  greater  depth  than  seven  or  eight  feet.)  the  process  becomes  much 
more  troublesome,  because  of  the  necessity  for  separating  and  re-uniting  the 
several  joints  every  time  the  auger  is  drawn  up  to  take  off  the  earth,  which 
has  to  be  done  for  every  four  or  five  inches  of  depth  gained.  This  trouble 
may  be  avoided  by  Mr.  Carter's  method.  re  a  rough  bench. 


R  HTIi  k  [55 

or  narrow  tabic,  made  of  a  single  plank,  soi  '  long,  and  haying 

legs  In  or  12  feel  in  length,     ft  hole  large  enough  for  the  stem  of  the  an 
tn  turn  in  freely  is  in  the  middle  of  the  bench.     As  soon  as  a  second  joint 
is  attached, the  bench  is  si  ring,  with  the  hole  immediately  above, 

so  that  when  the  auger  is  lifted  perpendicularly  clear  of  the  boring,  its  upper 
joint  pusses  through  the  hule,  ami  is  hold   up  steadily  by  of  the 

Por  siiil  greater  and  unusual  depths,  another  bench  with 
longer  legs  may  he  substituted,  or  a  lower  one  placed  upon  and  confined 
to  the  first  bench,  (farmer*1  Register.)  Such  means  as  these,  imperfect  as 
they  are,  will  !*>  found  more  convenient  and  more  operative,  as  well  as 
much  more  cheap,  than  the  heavy  and  costly  augers  used  to  search  for  coal. 
By  proper  examinations  marl  may  be  found  at  or  near  the  surface 
through  a  vast  extent  of  the  tide-water  region  of  the  United  States,  where 
it  has  not  yet  been  noticed.  But  still,  undermost  lands  it  probably  does 
not  approach  within  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  of  the  surface,  and  if  reached 
by  digging,  would  be  covered  by  water,  so  as  greatly  to  increase  the  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  it  from  such  depths.  Will  these  obstacles  always  debar 
from  the  benefit  of  this  treasure  half  the  great  region  under  which  it  lies? 
1  think  not.  Though  it  would  be  ridiculous  now  to  propose  such  under- 
takings, it  will  at  some  future  time  be  found  profitable  to  descend  still 
greater  depths  for  good  marl;  and  shafts  will  be  sunk  and  the  water  and 
marl  drawn  out  by  horse-power  or  by  steam  engines,  and  the  excavation 
carried  on  in  the  same  manner  as  is  done  in  coal  mines.  When  such 
means  shall  be  resorted  to,  it  is  probable  that  there  will  be  bat  a  small  por- 
tion of  the  great  tide-water  region,  or  the  region  east  of  the  granite  range, 
in  which  marl  may  not  be  found  sufficiently  convenient  for  use.  For  ex- 
ample :  from  a  mile  south  of  Petersburg,  along  the  line  of  the  railway  to 
the  Roanoke,  no  marl  had  been  found  either  by  the  excavations  for  the 
road,  or  in  the  much  deeper  wells  dug  long  before  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
route.  The  well  for  the  water-station  nine  miles  from  Petersburg  did  not 
at  all  times  supply  enough  water  for  the  engines,  and  it  was  determined  to 
dig  one  deep  enough  for  that  purpose.  1  Ksregarding  the  small  veins  of  water 
usually  reached  at  less  than  20  feet,  the  digging  was  sunk  to  50  feet,  when 
marl  was  reached.  Its  quality  at  top  was  rather  poor;  but  it  became  more 
and  more  rich,  as  well  as  of  (inner  consistence,  (though  never  very  hard,) 
until  the  well  had  been  sunk  to  >n  feet,  without  reaching  the  bottom  of  the 
marl,  or  finding  any  other  vein  of  water.  The  lower  part  of  this  marl 
was  from  80  to  90  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime,  as  I  found  by  several 
analyses.  It  would  have  served  to  make  good  lime,  by  burning,  for  cement 
or  for  manure,  to  be  transported  to  a  distance  on  the  railway;  besides 
being  of  more  value  to  be  used  unprepared  to  enrich  the  nearer  land. 
Though  covered  by  50  feet  of  earth,  and  the  excavation  impeded  by  the 
water  from  above,  this  marl  might  have  been  profitably  raised  SO  feet,  or 
as  much  lower  as  the  bed  may  extend.  And  so  firm  was  its  texture,  that 
the  excavation  might  have  been  safely  enlarged  gradually  as  it  was 
deepened,  as  is  done  in  the  chalk-pits  of  England,  so  as  that  the  diggmg 
should  form  a  hollow  cone,  conununicatin'_r  from  its  apex  by  the  narrower 
cylindrical  well  through  the  ,",i)  feet  of  earth  above  to  the  surface.  Thus 
though  the  earth  might  have  been  twice  the  thickness  of  the  marl  l*low, 
the  greater  diameter  of  excavation  in  the  latter  would  have  furnished 
much  the  greater  quantity  of  contents.  Of  this  most  valuable  deposite, 
found  in  a  region  before  supposed  destitute,  and  where  its  transportation  to 
a  long  line  of  destitute  land  was  so  convenient,  no  use  has  been  made,  ex- 
cept of  the  quantity  necessarily  drawn  up  in  digging  this  well.  And  this 
means  for  enriching  the  undertaker,  and  fertilizing  a  vast  extent  of  surface 


156 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PKAC TICK 


of  acid  and  poor  land,  will  probably  remain  totally  neglected  for  the  next 
fifty  years.  It  is  most  probable  that  this  same  thick  and  rich  body  of  marl 
may  be  found  at  many  mi]es'  distance  on  the  line  of  rail-road,  and  indeed 
wherever  the  surface  is  in  the  same  position  relative  to  the  granite  range. 
For  taking  up  marl  from  any  depth,  create;-  than  l'j  feet,  or  more  than 
two  casts  with  the  shovel  will  serve  for,  it  will  be  better  to  use  horse-power 
applied  to  machinery.  A  orane  which  has  been  used  by  Wm.  Carmichael 
Esq.,  of  Queen  Ann's  county,  Md.,  will  serve  the  purpose.  His  description 
of  the  crane  was  published  in  the  'Farmers'  Register,'  as  follows: 

"In  your  'Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures,'  you  give  instructions  for  dig- 
ging and  carting  marl.  This  method  I  pursued  for  several  years,  but  found 
the  labor  hard  on  my  hands,  and  tedious.  Marl  here  is  generally  found  in 
deep  ravines  or  in  wet  grounds.  My  operations  have  been  slow,  from  the 
difficulty  of  making  firm  and  lasting  ways,  and  the  labor  of  ascending 
steep  hills.  Last  winter  I  made  a  model,  and  this  spring  I  built  a  machine 
for  raising  marl,  to  be  worked  by  a  horse.  I  have  been  using  it  to  advan- 
tage, and  now  send  you  a  draught  of  it,  as  it  may  be  useful  to  those  who 
have  wet  marl  pits  like  mine.  By  means  of  a  pump  to  throw  off  the  wa- 
ter, pits  may  be  worked  at  a  considerable  depth ;  and  even  if  marl  is  dry, 
but  lies  deep,  I  think  the  crane  may  be  used  to  advantage.  I  use  two  boxes, 
and  by  means  of  hinges  and  a  latch  the  marl  is  discharged  from  the  bottom. 
I  have  double  blocks  ;  the  rope  passes  through  the  swoop  about  eighteen 
inches  from  the  end,  and  runs  down  to  the  post  which  supports  the  swoop, 
and  passes  through  it  on  a  small  roller,  and  in  like  manner  through  the 
next  post  to  the  cylinder,  to  which  a  reel  is  attached  to  increase  the 
motion.  The  post  which  holds  the  swoop  and  the  cylinder,  runs  on  iron 
pins  let  into  thimbles.  The  lever  is  in  two  pieces,  one  fastened  in  the 
cylinder  with  a  groove  at  the  end,  into  which  the  other  is  let,  and  secured 
by  a  sliding  iron  clamp.  When  the  marl  is  discharged  from  the  box,  and 
the  swoop  swung  round  over  the  pit,  in  nautical  phrase,  by  unshipping  the 
end  of  the  lever,  the  rope  unwinds,  and  the  box  descends  without  moving 
the  horse.  The  circle  in  which  the  horse  travels  ought  to  be  twenty-one 
feet  in  diameter.    The  second  and  third  posts  supported  by  side  braces. 


"  The  cost  of  the  machine  is  small,  though  I  cannot  make  an  exact  esti- 
mate.   The  carpenter  who  did  the  work  was  hired  by  the  day  on  the  farm. 


« 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACT1  ]57 

ami  was  taken  ofi   with  .  but  his  bill  could   not  < 

dollars.  The  cost  of  the  Iran  *ork  was  ten,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
live  feel  of  inch  rope,  at  eighteen  nnd  1  he  timber, 

taken  from  my  nun  w Is,  may  be  estimated  al  The  rope  1 

find  soon  wean  out,  and  I  intend  to  supply  its  place  with  chain. 

■•  When  the  marl  la  uncovered,  with  one  efficient  hand  in  the  pit  and  a 
efficient  one  to  discharge  the  boxes  and  drive  the  horse,  five  hundred 
bushels  may  be  raised  in  a  day.    The  work  is  not  to  the  labor- 

era  The  teams  stand  on  high,  dry  ground  ;  no  sloughs  to  plunge  through, 
and  no  bill  to  cUm        .  by  a  small  rope  over  the  carta, 

and  the  marl  immediately  discharged  into  them.  1  work  four  carta,  with 
two  sets  of  oxen  to  each.     Tl  o!  the  winter  lean  and  weak; 

and  now,  with  green  clover  for  their  food,  at  the  distance  of  a  half  to  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  l  draw  out  from  four  to  five  hundred  bushels  a  day, 
and  my  oxen  have  impro  with  ease  and  expedition, 

without  stoppage  t"  mend  roads,  or  to  clear  ditches." 

our  beds  of  marl  are  either  of  a  blue,  or  a  yellowish  color.  The  color 
of  the  first  might  be  supposed  to  have  some  connexion  with  the  presence 
of  water,  as  this  kind  is  always  kept  wet  by  water  OOzing  slowly  through 
it.  But  the  yellow  marl  is  also  sometimes  wet,  though  more  generally  dry. 
The  blue  color  of  mail  therefore  Is  not  caused  by  n  erely  the  presence  of 
water,  or  there  would  be  no  wet  yellow  marl.  When  both  blue  and  yel- 
low marl  an-  seen  in  the  same  I  al  bottom;  and  the 
line  of  di\  ision  between  the  colors  is  well  defined,  and  then  gra- 
dual change  ol  one  t"  the  other,  i  observed,  in  the  year  16 
intense  and  perfect  a  blue  rl  has  ever  been  known  to  have  was 
to  what  had  been  dry  yellow  marl,  by  il  a  thil  k  Boor- 
rd,  and  kept  covered  with  the  rotting  manure,  and  pene- 
trated by  its  liquid  oozinjjs,  which  the  marl  was  I  to  save:  It 
may  be  Inferred  i                    ;  that  blue  marls  I 

from  or  other  putrescent  matter,  dissolved  in   the 

water  passing  through  the  bed. 

The  dry  marls  are  of  course  much  the  easier  t  i  be  worke 
very  p  ciently  firm 

and  sniid  for  the  sides  of  the  pit  to  stand  secure,  when  du  nlariy. 

Where  a  bed  of  marl  is  dry,  and  not  covered  by  much  earth,  nod 
tains  are  required  for  the  pit  work— except  it  I  c,  that  the  pit  should  be 
long  enough  to  allow  the  carts  ■  to  the  bottom  (when   finished) 

and  to  ris it  on  a  slope  sufficiently  gradual.     This  will  prevent  the 

tj  ol  twice  handling  the  marl,  by  first  throwing  it  out  of  the  pi; 
then  into  the  or  its 

ends  too  steep,  foi  I  >  machine  or  contriv; 

yet   known  Will   raise  mail  from  pit,  era   valley,   SO   well 

as 'a  horse  cart;  and  no  pains  will  be  lost,  in  i  r  actu- 

ating the  ascent  out  <>i"  it.  to  attain  that  i 

Mm  it  is  not  necessary,  nor  often  ■ 
I  as  low  as  the  botti  i 
of  the  marl  to  be  dug,  it  is  generally 

cientsizeto  the  top  of  that  part,)  to  takeout  this  lowei  part  in  small  pits, 
of  about  .".  tiit   w  ■  ngth,  with  pel  is  well 

I  ts  may   be  i  re ved   fn 

ned  oil  foi  i»  very  wet, 

or  unavoidab  inundation  from  sti  n  by  heavy  rains, 

it  \ill  be  more  sale  to  dig  pits  a^  small  as  the  men  employed  can  find  - 


158 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE. 


to  dig  in  and  throw  out  from,  and  to  sink  them  to  15  or  16  feet,  by  throwing 
the  lower  half  oh  a  table,  whence  another  man  will  throw  it  to  the  level 
where  the  carts  can  stand  to  be  loaded.  Then  each  separate  pit  will  soon 
be  completed,  and  out  of  danger  of  bad  weather.  And  if  flooded  before 
being  finished,  the  loss  of  the  marl,  then  remaining  not  dug,  will  not  be 
important  in  so  small  an  excavation. 

A.5  marl  shows  usually  on  a  hill-side,  but  little  earth  has  to  be  moved  off 
to  uncover  the  first  place  for  digging.  But  the  next,  and  each  successive 
cover  of  earth,  will  be  more  thick,  until  it  may  be  necessary  to  abandon 
that  place  and  begin  again  elsewhere.  But  the  quantity  of  covering  earth 
need  not  be  regarded  as  a  serious  obstacle,  if  it  is  not  thicker  than  the 
marl  below  it.  While  that  is  the  case,  one  pit  completed  will  receive  all 
the  earth  thrown  from  an  equal  space,  for  commencing  another.  When 
this  proportion  of  earth  is  exceeded,  it  is  necessary  to  carry  it  farther,  by 
either  wheel-barrows  or  scrapers,  and  the  labor  is  thereby  greatly  increased. 

For  any  extensive  'operation,  it  is  much  cheaper  to  take  off  a  cover  of 
earth  twelve  feet  thick  to  obtain  marl  of  equal  depth,  than  if  both  the  co- 
vering earth  and  marl  were  only  three  feet  each.  Whether  the  cover  be 
thick  or  thin,  two  parts  of  the  operation  are  equally  troublesome,  viz.  to 
take  off  the  mat  of  roots,  and  perhaps  some  large  trees  on  the  surface  soil, 
and  to  clean  off  the  surface  of  the  marl,  which  is  sometimes  very  irregular. 
The  greater  part  of  the  thickest  cover  would  be  much  easier  to  work.  But 
the  most  important  advantage  in  taking  off  earth  of  ten  or  more  feet  in 
thickness,  is  saving  digging  by  causing  the  earth  to  come  down  by  its  own 
weight.  If  time  can  be  allowed  to  aid  this  operation,  the  driest  earth  will 
mostly  fall,  by  being  repeatedly  undermined  a  little.  But  this  is  greatly 
facilitated  by  the  oozing  water,  which  generally  fills  the  earth  lying  imme- 
diately on  beds  of  wet  marl.  In  uncovering  a  bed  of  this  description,  for 
one  of  my  early  operations,  where  the  marl  was  to  be  dug  fourteen  feet, 
and  ten  to  twelve  feet  of  earth  to  remove,  my  labor  was  made  ten-fold 
heavier  by  digging  altogether.  The  surface  bore  living  trees,  and  was  full 
of  roots — there  was  enough  stone  to  keep  the  edges  of  the  hoes  bat- 
tered— and  small  springs  and  oozing  water  came  out  every  where,  after 
diggmg  a  few  feet  deep.  A  considerable  part  of  the  earth  was  a  tough, 
adhesive  clay,  kept  wet  throughout,  and  which  it  was  equally  difficult  to  get 
on  the  shovels,  and  to  get  rid  of.  Some  years  after,  another  pit  was  un- 
covered on  the  same  bed,  and  under  like  circumstances,  except  that  the 
time  was  the  last  of  summer,  and  there  was  less  water  oozing  through  the 
earth.  This  digging  was  begun  at  the  lowest  part  of  the  earth,  which  was 
a  layer  of  sand,  kept  quite  wet  and  soft  by  the  water  oozing  through  it. 
With  gravel  shovels,  this  was  easily  cut  under  from  one  to  two  feet  along 
the  whole  length  of  the  old  pit,  and,  as  fast  as  was  desirable,  the  upper 
earth,  thus  undermined,  fell  into  the  old  pit ;  and  afterwards,  when  that  did 
not  take  place  of  itself,  the  fallen  earth  was  easily  thrown  there  by  shovels. 
As  the  earth  fell  separated  into  small  but  compact  masses,  it  was  not  much 
affected  by  the  water,  even  when  it  remained  through  the  night  before  be- 
ing shoveled  away.  No  digging  was  required,  except  this  continued  sho- 
veling out  of  the  lowest  sand  stratum ;  and  whether  clay,  or  stones,  or  roots, 
were  mixed  with  the  failing  earth,  they  were  easy  to  throw  off.  The  nu- 
merous roots,  which  were  so  troublesome  in  the  former  operation,  were 
now  an  advantage ;  as  they  supported  the  earth  sufficiently  to  let  it  fall 
only  gradually  and  safely  ;  and  before  the  roots  fell,  they  were  almost  clear 
of  earth.  The  whole  body  of  earth,  notwithstanding  all  its  difficulties, 
was  moved  off  as  easily  as  the  driest  and  softest  could  have  been  by  dig- 
ging altogether. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-  PRACTICE.  1  59 

In  working  a  pit  of  wel  nun],  no  pains  siinulil  be  spared  to  drain  it  as 
effectually  as  poaaibla  Very  few  beds  are  penetrated  by  reins  of  running 
water  which  would  deserve  the  name  "I  springs;  bu(  wafer  oozes  very 
slowly  through  every  part  of  wet  marl,  and  bold  springs  often  burst  out 
Immediately  over  its  surface.  After  the  form  of  the  pit  and  situation  of 
the  road  are  determined,  a  ditch  to  receive  and  draw  off  all  the  water 
should  be  commenced  down  Ihe  valley,  as  low  as  the  bottom  of  the  area 
ulnar  the  carts  are  to  stand  Is  expected  to  be  made;  and  the  ditch  opened 
up  to  the  work,  deepening  a<  it  extends,  bo  as  to  keep  the  bottom  of  the 
ditch  on  the  same  level  with  the  bottom  of  the  area.  It  may  be  cheaper, 
and  will  serve  as  well,  to  deepen  this  ditch  as  the  deepening  of  the  pit  pro- 
(ii.is.  After  the  marl  is  uncovered  for  the  full  size  intended  for  the  area, 
(which  ought  to  be  large  enough  for  carts  to  turn  about  on,)  a  little  drain 
of  four  or  five  inches  wide,  and  as  many  deep,  (or  the  size  made  by  the 
grubbing  boe  used  to  cut  it,)  should  he  carried  all  around  to  intercept  the 
surface  or  spring  water,  and  conduct  it  to  the  main  drain.  The  marl  will 
now  be  dry  enough  for  the  carts  to  be  brought  on  and  loaded.  But  as  the 
digging  proceeds,  oozing  water  will  collect  slowly;  and,  aided  by  the 
wheels  of  loaded  raits,  the  surface  of  the  firmest  marl  would  soon  be  ren- 
dered a  puddle,  and  next  quagmire.  This  may  easily  be  prevented  by  the 
inclination  of  the  surface.  The  first  course  dug  off  should  be  much  the 
deepest  next  the  surface  drain,  (leaving  a  margin  of  a  few  inches  of  firm 
marl,  as  a  bank  to  keep  in  the  stream,)  so  that  the  digging  shall  be  the  low- 
est around  the  outside,  ami  gradually  rise  in  level  to  the  middle  of  the  area. 
Whatever  water  may  find  its  way  within  the  work,  whether  from  oozing, 
rain,  or  accidental  burstings  of  the  little  surface  drain,  will  run  to  the  out- 
side, the  dip  of  which  should  lead  to  the  lower  main  drain.     After  this  form 

has e  been  given  to  the  surface  of  the  area,  very  little  attention  is  re- 

quired  to  preserve  it ;  for  if  the  successive  courses  are  dug  of  equal  depth 
from  side  to  side,  the  previous  dip  will  not  be  altered.  The  sides  or  walls 
of  the  pit  should  be  cut,  (in  descending,)  something  without  the  pcrpendi- 
CUl  tr,  so  that  the  pit  is  made  one  or  two  feet  wider  at  bottom  than  top. 
The  usual  firm  texture  will  prevent  any  danger  from  this  overhanging 
shape,  and  several  advantages  will  be  gained  from  it.  It  gives  more  space 
for  work — prevents  the  wheels  running  on  the  lowest  and  wettest  parts — 
allows  more  earth  to  the  disposed  of,  in  opening  for  the  next  pit — and  pre- 
vents that  earth  from  tumbling  into  the  next  digging,  when  the  separating 
wall  of  marl  is  afterwards  cut  away.  The  next  upper  and  larger  drain  of 
the  pit,  which  takes  the  surface  water,  will  hang  over  the  small  one  below, 
kept  for  the  oozing  water.  The  former  remains  unaltered  throughout  the 
job,  and  may  still  convey  the  stream  when  six  feet  above  the  heads  of  the 
laborers  in  the  pit.  The  lower  drain  of  course  sinks  with  the  digging. 
Should  the  pit  be  dug  dee|>er  than  the  level  of  the  main  receive; 
be  sunk,  a  wall  should  be  left  between,  and  the  remainder  of  the  oozing 
water  must  be  conducted  to  a  little  basin  near  the  wall,  and  thence  be 
baled  or  pumped  into  the  receiving  ditch.     The  ,  ihe  carts  to 

ascend  from  the  pit  should  be  kept  on  a  suitable  slope;  and  the  marl  form- 
ing that  slope  may  be  cut  out  in  small  pits,  after  all  the  balance  of  the  dig- 
uing has  been  completed. 

If  the  marl  is  so  situated  that  carts  cannot  be  driven  as  low  as  the  bot- 
tom, either  because  of  the  danger  ol  Hooding,  or  that  the  ascent  would  be 
too  steep  for  sufficiently  area  must  be  cut  out  in 

small  pita,  as  before  stated,  beginning  at  the  back  part,  and  extending  as 
they  proceed,  towards  the  road  leading  out  of  the  pit. 

On  high  ami  hilly  land,  marl  is  generally  found  at  the  bottom  of  ra- 


160  ca;  iancres— practii 

vines,  and  separated  from  the  field  to  which  it  is  to  be  carried  by  a  big. 
steep  bill-side.     The  difficulty  of  cutting  roads  in  such  situations  is  much 
less  than  any  inexperienced  pe:  ippose     We  cannot  get  rid  of 

any  of  the  actual  elevation—  but  the  ascent  may  be  made  as  gradual  as  is 
desired,  by  a  proper  location  of  the  road.     The  intended  course  must  be 
laid  off  by  the  eye,  and  the  upper  side  of  the  road  marked, 
through  woods,  it  will  be  necessary  to  use  grubbing  hoes  for  the  d:_ 
With  :  -  .ould  be  begun  at  I  r  or  five  feet 

below  the  marked  line,  and  carried  horizontally  onward  to  it     The  earth 
so  dug  is  to  be  pulled  back  with  broad  h  I  over  a  width  of 

three  or  four  feet  1  place  from  whic:  pper 

side  of  the  road  is  formed  by  cutting  down,  and  the  lower  side  by  filling 
up  with  the  earth  taken  f. 


The  annexed  figure  will  prevent  these  directions  being  misunderstood. 
The  straight  line  from  a  to  b  represents  the  original  slope  of  the  hill-side,  of 
which  the  whole  figure  is  a  section.  The  upper  end  of  the-dbtted  part  of 
the  line  is  in  the  mark  for  laying  off  the  upper  side  of  the  road.  The  up- 
per triangle  is  a  section  of  the  earth  dug  tc:  -  Je,  and  the  lower 
triangle  of  the  part  filled  up  by  its  removal.  1  :al  line  is  the  level 
of  the  road  formed  by  cutting  in  on  the  upper,  and  fiiiing  up  on  the  lower 
side.  After  shaping  the  road  roughly.  I  ;es  will  be  seen,  and  may 
be  corrected  in  the  finishing  work,  by  deepening  some  places  and 
up  others,  so  as  to  graduate  the  whole  properly.  A  width 
feet  of  firm  road  will  be  sufficient  for  carting  marl. 

If  the  land  through  which  the  road  is  to  be  cut  is  not  very  steep,  and  is 
free  from  trees  and  roots,  the  operation  may  be  made  much  cheaper  by 
using  the  plough.  The  first  farrow  should  be  run  along  the  line  of  the 
bwer  aide  of  The  intended  road,  and  turned  down  hill:  the  plough  then 
returns  empty,  to  carry  a  second  furrow  by  In  this  manner  it 

proceeds,  cutting  deeply,  and  throwing  the  slices  far,  (both  of  which  are 
easily  done  on  a  hill-side.)  until  rather  more  than  the  required  width  is 
ploughed.     The  ploughman  then  be^;  st  furrow,  and 

ploughs  the  whole  over  as  at  first,  and  this  course  is  repeated  perhaps  once 
or  twice  more,  until  enough  earth  is  cut  from  the  upper  and  put  on  the 
lower  side  of  the  road.  After  the  first  ploughing,  broad  hoes  should  aid 
and  complete  the  work,  by  pulling  down  the  earth  from  the  higher  to  the 
lower  side,  and  particularly  in  those  places  where  the  hill-side  is  steepest. 
After  the  proper  shape  is  given,  carts,  at  first  empty  and  then  with  light 
loads,  should  be  driven  over  every  part  of  the  surface  of  the  road,  until  it 
is  firm.  If  a  heavy  rain  should  fall  before  it  has  been  thus  trodden,  the 
road  would  be  rendered  useless  for  a  considerable  time. 

These  directions  are  mostly  suited  for  greater  difficulties  than  usually  oc- 
cur, though  they  are  such  as  attended  most  of  my  labors  in  marling.    In  the 


0ALCAREOU8  MAN1  Rl  iCE.  |gj 

great  majority  ol  oases,  there  will  be  much  I  I  care  ami  skill  re- 

qnlred,  ere  will  nol  be  encountei  tacles  as  high  and 

steep  hills  to  ascend,  thick  over-lying  earth  t"  remove,  or  wet  pits  and  i 
to  keep  drained, 

In  large  operations  and  In  dry  marl,  much  labor  might  be 

ightly  andermining  a  perpendicular  body  of  marl,  and  then 
splitting  "i  ;  at  onee,  by  driving  In  a  line  of  wedgel  on  the 

upper  surface. 

For  bard  or  firm  marl,  narrow  and  heavy  picks  are  the  best  digging 
utensils.  Gravel  shovels,  with  rounded  points  and  long  handles,  are  the 
cheapest  and  most  effective  For  throwing  out  the  marl  ami  loading  the  carts, 
as  well  as  for  afterwards  spreading  the  heaps  on  the  field. 

Tumbrel  carts, drawn  by  a  single  horse  or  mule,  are  most  convenient  for 
conveying  marl  short  disl  tv  part  of  the  cart  should  be  light, 

ami  the  body  should  be  so  small  as  only  to  hold  the  load  it  is  intended  to 
carry,  without  a  tail-board.  This  plan  enables  the  drivers  to  measure  every 
load,  which  advantage  Will  be  found  on  trial  much  more  important  than 
would  at  lust  be  Supposed,  It  carts  of  common  size  are  used,  the  careless 
laborers  will  generally  load  too  lightly,  yet  sometimes  will  injure  the  hoi  ■ 
patting  "ii  a  load  much  too  heavy.  The  small  sized  cart-bodies  prevent  both 
these  faults.  The  load  cannot  be  made  much  too  heavy;  and  if  too  light,  the 
farmer  can  detect  it  at  a  glance  Where  there  is  a  hill  to  ascend,  live  heap- 
ed bushels  of  wet  marl  is  a  sufficient  load  for  a  horse  or  good  mule.  If  the 
marl  is  dry,  or  the  road  level  and  firm,  six  bushels  will  be  not  too  much, 
and  may  be  put  in  the  same  carts,  by  using  tail-boards. 

Strong  laborers  are  required  in  tin'  pit  for  digging  and  loading;  but  boys 
who  are  too  small   for  any  Othei  i  labor,  are  sufficient   to  drive 

the  carts.      Horses  or  mules   kept  at  this  work  si  ion   become  so   tractable 
that  very  little  strength  or  skill  is  required  to  drive  them. 

One  of  the  ino^t  general  and  injurious  errors  is  the  irregular  and  unequal 
distribution  of  the  marl  over  the  fields.  By  this  error,  it  often  happens 
that  in  the  same  acre  there  is  both  too  much  and  too  little  marl,  on  many 
different  parts.  It  will  save  much  time  and  trouble,  and  ensure  far  gi 
accuracy  in  depositing  the  loads,  and  afterwards  in  spreading  them,  to 
have  the  fiald  marked  off  slightly  by  a  plough,  In  checks  or  squares  of  sizes 
suitable  to  the  desired  amount  of  the  dressing.  A  load  (or  the  half  of  a 
load  for  very  light  marling)  should  be  dropped  in  every  square,  and  the 
heap  be  required  to  be  spread  over  that  marked  space  precisely. 

All   these  hints  and  expedients,  or  perhaps  better  plans,  might   perhaps1 
occur  to  most  persons  before  they  are  long  engaged  in  marling.     Still  I 
directions   may  help  to  smooth   away  .some  of  the  obstructions  in  the  way 
of  the  inexperienced  ;   and  they  will  not  be  entirely  useless,  if  they  serve  to 
prevent  even  small  losses  of  time  and  labor. 


]g2  CALCAREOUS  MAMKES-PkaCTK'E 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE    PROGRESS    Or    MARLING    IS    VIRGINIA. 

My  task  is  at  last  completed.  Whether  I  shall  be  able  to  persuade  my 
countrymen  to  prize  the  treasures,  and  seize  the  profits  which  are  within 
their  reach,  or  whether  my  testimony  and  arguments  shall  be  fruitless, 
soon  or  late,  a  time  must  arrive  when  my  expectations  will  be  realized. 
The  use  of  calcareous  manures  is  destined  to  change  a  large  portion  of 
the  soil  of  lower  Virginia  from  barrenness  to  fertility ;  which,  added  to  the 
advantages  we  already  possess — our  navigable  waters  and  convenient 
markets,  the  facility  of  tilling  our  lands,  and  the  choice  of  crops  offered  by 
our  climate — will  all  concur  to  increase  ten-fold  the  present  value  of  our 
land,  and  produce  more  farming  profit  than  has  been  found  elsewhere  on 
soils  far  more  favored  by  nature.  Population,  wealth  and  learning,  will 
keep  pace  with  the  improvement  of  the  soil ;  and  we  or  our  children  will 
have  reason  to  rejoice,  not  only  as  farmers,  but  as  Virginians,  and  as 
patriots. 

Such,  as  appear  in  the  last  paragraph,  were  the  concluding  words  of  this 
essay,  as  published  in  1832,  and  precisely  as  the  work  had  been  prepared  for 
the  press  several  years  before  that  publication  was  made.  Such  was  then 
the  language  of  hope  and  anticipation.  It  may  now  be  both  interesting  and 
useful  to  examine  to  what  extent  such  hopes  and  sanguine  anticipations 
have  been  yet  realized. 

Every  new  and  great  improvement  in  agriculture  has  had  to  work  its 
way  slowly  and  in  opposition  to  every  possible  discouragement  and  ob- 
stacle. It  would  seem  that  the  agricultural  classes  were,  of  all  classes  and 
professions,  always  the  least  ready  to  receive  benefit  from  instruction — the 
most  distrustful  of  instructers  and  the  least  thankful  for  their  services — 
even  after  the  benefit  is  the  most  completely  proved,  and  established  by  ac- 
tual practice  and  unquestionable  facts.  The  novel  improvement  by  marling 
has  not  been  an  exception  to  this  universal  rule.  But  still,  it  may  be  con- 
fidently asserted,  that  no  other  agricultural  improvement  has  been  so  ra- 
pidly extended,  so  widely  and  general!}'  received  in  such  short  time,  or 
has  been  so  generally  and  greatly  profitable  to  all  who  have  availed  them- 
selves of  the  benefits  thereby  offered  to  their  acceptance.  When  my  first 
trials  were  made  in  1818,  so  far  as  I  then  knew,  I  had  no  forerunner  in 
success.  For  the  few  and  small  known  and  long  abandoned  experiments, 
and  the  opinions  deduced  therefrom,  stood  as  warnings  against,  and  not  in 
the  least  as  inducements  to  repetition ;  and  the  then  actually  proceeding 
use  of  marl,  silent  and  unknown,  but  successful,  had  not  even  been  heard 
of.  A  few  more  years  served  to  dispel  all  doubts  of  those  who  had  tried  or 
could  witness  the  results  of  the  applications  of  marl.  Still,  ignorance  of 
the  mode  of  operation  has  not  been  dispelled  by  the  knowledge  of  the  great 
benefits  of  marl ;  and  therefore  the  grossest  errors  of  practice  accom- 
panied and  greatly  lessened  the  full  advantages  of  the  continually  extend- 
ing use  of  marl.  It  required  but  little  time  for  all  to  learn  and  submit  to 
the  one  main  and  simple  instruction,  "apply  marl ;"  but  few  would  consent 
to  learn  any  thing  else,  or  would  believe  that  there  was  any  thing  else 
necessary  to  learn  or  to  do,  except  merely  to  ••  apply  marl."  They  would 
not  learn  from  any  thing  but  their  own  dearly  bought  experience  of  error. 
And  very  many  have  thus  learned,  and  have  jxiid  the  cost  to  their  own 
pecuniary  interest  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  value — whether  <>f  lelay.  of 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-PKACTICE.  ]g3 

misapplied  effort,  or  of  positive  loss  and  injury  sustained  I >y  wrong  prac- 
tice— which  the  out-lay  of  a  few  shillings,  and  the  attentive  reading  for  a 
few  hours,  might  have  effectually  guarded  them  against  And  so  it  still 
goes  on,  and  will  go  on,  with  all  who  are  new  beginners  and  learners,  and 
who  have  not  yet  paid  each  their  hundreds  or  thousands  of  dollars  in  loss, 
in  prefereni  in  as  many  cents,  in  both  money  and  labor,  in  ac- 

quiring proper  instruction,  and  security  from  all  such  loss. 

Bdt  with  all  such  enormous  .haw  hacks  of  loss,  which  if  avoided  would 
have  doubled  the  actually  achieved  benefits,  the  extension  of  marling  and 
liming,  and  the  amount  of  benefit  thence  derived  and  realized  in  lower  Vir- 
ginia, since  1818,  have  had  no  precedent  in  the  annals  of  agricultural  im- 
provement by  any  mode  o(  manuring.  The  following  extract  from  a  more 
il  report,  recently  made  by  the  writer  to  the  State  Board  of  Agricul- 
ture, will  present  this  branch  of  the  subject  in  its  proper  aspect. 

"  Marling,  or  manuring  from  beds  of  fossil  shells. — This  mode  of  fertiliza- 
tion, now  so  general  through  all  the  marl  region  of  lower  Virginia,  was 
not  practised  except  on  three  or  four  detached  farms,  and  that  to  but  small 
extent  before  1820.  Some  few  and  generally  small  experimental  applica- 
tions of  marl  had  indeed  been  made  by  different  individuals,  from  15  to  as 
far  hack  as  45  years  before;  but  which  applications,  from  total  misconcep- 
tion of  the  true  mode  of  action  of  calcareous  manures,  had  been  deemed 
failures ;  and  without  exception,  of  course,  had  been  abandoned  by  the  ex- 
perimenters as  worthless;  and  the  experiments  had  been  almost  forgotten, 
until  again  brought  to  notice,  after  the  much  later  and  fully  successful  in- 
troduction of  the  practice, 

••  l  [enley  Taylor  and  Archer  Hankins,  two  plain  ami  illiterate  farmers,  and 
near  neighbors  in  James  city  county,  were  the  earliest  successful  and 
continuing  appliers  of  marl  in  Virginia.  But  at  what  time  they  began,  and 
which  of  them  was  the  first,  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn,  though  visiting 
Mr.  Hankins'  farm  lor  that  purpose,  as  well  as  to  see  his  marling,  and 
making  inquiries  of  him  personally,  in  1833.  Mr.  Taylor  had  then  been 
long  dead,  and  his  improvements  said  to  he  almost  lost,  by  the  then  occu- 
pant of  his  land.  Mr.  Hankins  was  unable  to  say  when  he  and  his  neighbor 
began  to  try  marl.  He  was  only  certain  that  it  was  before  1816.  Yet, 
though  these  farms  are  within  12  or  15  miles  of  Williamsburg,  to  which 
place  I  ha.l  made  visits  once  a  year  or  oftener,  yet  I  never  heard  an  intima- 
tion of  their  having  begun  such  practice,  until  some  time  after  my  own  first 
trials  in  18  IS.  At  that  time,  when  led  to  the  use,  as  I  was,  altogether  by 
theoretical  views,  and  by  reasoning  on  the  supposed  constitution  of  the 
soil,  as  well  as  the  known  constitution  of  the  manure,  it  would  have  been 
to  me  the  most  acceptable  and  beneficial  information  to  have  heard  that 
any  other  person  in  Virginia  had  already  proved  practically  the  value  of 
marling.  The  slow  progress  of  the  knowledge  of  the  mere  fact  of  marl 
having  been  successfully  used  before  that  time,  was  a  strong  illustration  of 
the  then  almost  total  want  of  communication  among  farmers,  as  well  as 
of  their  general  apathy  and  ignorance,  in  regard  to  the  means  of  improving 
their  lands.- 

■  Much  earlier  than  the  commencement  of  marling  in  James  i  ity,  the 
practice  bad  been  commenced,  in  1-05,)  in  Talbot  county,  Maryland,  by 
Mr.  Singleton.  His  account  of  his  practice  is  in  the  1th  volume  of  the 
•Memoirs  of  the  Philadelphia  Agricultural  Society.'  dated  December  31, 
1817,  and   first  published   some  time  in  1818.     But   successful  as  was  his 

i  more  full  account  at  i  Farmers'  Register. 


1(54 


CALCAREOVS  M  AM  RKS-PKACT1CE. 


practice,  and  also  that  of  Mr.  Taylor  and  Mr.  Hankins,  in  connexion  with 
much  worse  farming,  it  is  certain  that  neither  of  these  individuals  had  the 
least  idea  of  the  true  action  of  marl ;  and  they  were  indebted  to  their  good 
fortune,  more  than  to  any  exercise  of  reasoning,  that  they  received  profit- 
able returns,  and  did  no  injury  by  marling.  They  all  three  applied  their 
putrescent  manures  with  the  marl.  But  though  this  was  the  safest  and 
most  beneficial  plan,  the  thus  uniting  them  prevented  the  separate  action 
and  value  of  putrescent  and  calcareous,  manures  being  known,  compared, 
and  duly  appreciated. 

•'  My  own  application  of  mar),  on  Coggins  Point  farm.  Prince  George 
county,  which  in  1818  extended  only  to  15  acres,  (of  which  but  3  or  4 
were  under  the  crop  of  that  year.)  by  1S21  had  been  increased  to  above 
SO  acres  a  year,  and  so  continued  until  nearly  all  the  then  arable  land  on 
that  farm  requiring  it,  (more  than  600  acres,)  had  been  covered.  In  1821, 
my  earliest  publication  on  the  subject  was  made.  Though  the  facts  and 
reasoning  thus  made  known  by  that  time  were  beginning  to  attract  much 
notice,  and  to  induce  man}'  persons  to  begin  to  marl,  still  it  was  some 
years  later  before  incredulity  and  ridicule  had  generally  given  place  to  full 
confidence  in  the  value  of  the  "improvement  Even  at  this  time,  when 
nearly  25  years  of  my  own  experience  of  marling  and  its  benefits  have 
passed,  and  the  results  are  open  to  public  notice  and  scrutiny,  not  half  the 
persons  who  could  marl  are  engaged  at  it,  or  are  marling  to  but  little  pur- 
pose; and  of  all  who  are  using  marl,  nineteen  in  twenty  are  proceeding 
injudiciously,  without  regard  to  the  mode  of  operation  of  the  manure,  and 
therefore  are  either  doing  harm,  or  losing  profit,  almost  as  often,  though  in 
less  degree,  as  doing  good.  At  this  time,  however,  there  are  scarcely  any 
persons,  however  negligent  in  practice,  who  do  not  fully  admit  the  great 
value  and  certain  profit  of  applying  marl  wherever  it  is  found. 

••  But  with  all  the  existing  neglect  of  using  this  means  of  fertilization,  and 
with  all  the  still  worse  ignorance  of  or  inattention  to  its  manner  of  ope- 
rating, there  never  has  been  a  new  improvement  in  agriculture  more  ra- 
pidly extended,  or  with  such  beneficial  arid  profitable  results.  In  Prince 
George  county,  there  is  not  one  farmer  having  Karl  on  or  near  his  land, 
who  has  not  applied  it  to  greater  or  less  extent,  and  always  with  more  or 
less  profit— and,  in  most  cases,  largely  as  well  as  profitably.  In  .' 
City  comity  there  has  been  perhaps  the  next  largest  as  well  as  the 
practice.  In  York  county,  as  in  James  City,  some  of  the  most  valuable 
and  profitable  improvements  by  marling  have  been  made.  And  some  of 
the  farms  of  both  counties,  adjoining' Williamsburg,  and  having  the  benefit 
of  putrescent  town  manures,  show,  more  strikingly  than  any  others  known, 
the  remarkable  power  of  calcareous  manure  to  fix  the  putrescent  in  the 
soil,  and  make  them  more  eihcient  and  far  more  durable.  In  Surry,  Isle  of 
Wight.  Nansemond,  Charles  City,  New  Kent,  Hanover.  King  William,  King 
and  Queen,  Gloucester,  and  Middlesex  counties,  in  the  middle  of  the  marl 
region  of  Virginia,  mail  has  been  already  extensively  applied,  and  the  pro- 
fits therefrom  are  annually  increasing.  And  in  other  surrounding  counties. 
worse  supplied  with  marl,  the  practice  has  been  canied  on  in  proportion  to 
the  facilities,  and  to  the  more  scanty  experience  and  degree  of  information 
on  the  subject.  It  would  be  a  most  important  statistical  fact,  il  it  could  be 
ascertained  how  much  land  in  Virginia  has  already  been  marled.  The 
quantity  however  is  very  great;  and  all  the  land  marled  has  been  thereby 
increased  in  net  product,  on  the  general  average,  fully  S  bushels  of  corn  or 
oats,  or  -1  bushels  of  wheat—  and  tue  land  increased  in  intrinsic  value  fully 
'200  per  cent  on  its  previous  value  or  market  price.  Where  the  marling 
has  been  judiciously  conducted,  the-         ( •         ..•reaee  have  been  more 


I  >l  s  MANURES  -  PRACTICE  j  55 

than  doubled.  From  those  data,  might  be  calculated  something  like  the 
already  prodigiously  1  and  products  due  solely  to  m 

and  which  will  be  still  n  ir.     li  not  a 

\  alue  to  tin'  a nt  of 

millions  of  dollars  having  been  thus  created.     II  In  this 

iter  into  minute  details  of  results,  nor  to  prescribe  rules 
for  practice,    both  of  which  have  been  given  The 

■  is  bui  to  state  improvem  esults  in  general. 

"  It  required  the  impr  ■  and  mi. idling 

.   or  liming,  which  in  final  1 
der  as  generally  available  the  best  and  but  rarely  found  be 

of  the  two  1  table  manuring  recommended  by  Taylor;     M 

such  soils  have  been  made  calcareous,  by  marling  or  linung,  then,  and  not 
until  then,  all  the  benefits  present  and  future,  that  bis  leaders  might  have 
been  induced  to  expect,  may  be*  confidently  counted  upon.  In  my  own 
earlier  practice — and  Taylor  hail  no  Lrer,  or  more  Implicit  fol- 

lower— I  found  my  farm-yard  manurings  on  acid  soils  scarcely  to  pay  the 
expense  of  application,  and  to  leave  no  trace  of  the  effect  alter  a  very  short 
time.  And  land,  allowed  to  receive  for  its  support  all  its  vegetable  growth 
(of  weeds  and  natural  grass)  of  two  and  a  half  years  in  every  four,  and  the 
products  in  corn  having  been  measured  and  compared,  showed  no  certain 
increase  in  more  than  twenty  yens  of  such  mild  treatment.  Since,  on  the 
same  fields,  farm-yard  manures,  in  every  mode  of  preparation  and  applica- 
tion, always  tell  well,  both  in  early  ellect  and  in  duration.  And  even  the 
leaves  raked  up  on  wood-land,  spread  immi  1   without  any  pre- 

paration as  top-dressing  on  clover,  always  produce  most  manifest  improve- 
ment, and  are  believed  to  give  more  net  profit  than  any  application  of  the 
much  richer  farm-yard  manure,  per  acre,  made  on  like  land  before  it  is 
marled.  This  utilizing  and  fixing  of  other  manures,  and  the  fitting  land 
to  produce  clover,  which  effects  of  marling  arc  in  addition  to  all  the  direct 
benefit  produced,  would  alone  serve  to  give  a  new  face  to  the  agriculture 
of  the  country.     Whatever   ma  by   clover,  and   almost  e\ery 

thing  that  can  be  done  to  profit  by  vegeta   le  manures,  on  the  much  la 
proportion  of  the  lands  of  lower  Virginia,  will  I"'  due  to  the  application  of 
marl  or  lime. 

"  Liming. — The  kindred  improvement  by  liming  began  to  be  extensively 
practised  on  some  of  the  best  James  river  lam  1  marl  was  found, 

soon  after  the  use  of  the  latter  began  to  extend.  Who  may  have  n 
the  earliest  and  small  applications  of  lime  is  not  known,  nor  is  it  at  all  im- 
portant. The  earlier  profitable  nia,  and  the  1 
earlier  and  more  e  in  Britain,  were  known  to  every  well-in- 
formed or  reading  farmer.  Such  a  one  was  Fielding  Lewis,  of  Charles 
City,  as  well  ttentive,  judicious,  and  successful  practical  cultiva- 
tor and  improver.  He  is  believed  to  have  been  the  earl  ..able 
limer,  and  the  one  who  obtained  the  most  n 

whose  example  hid  most  effect  in  spreading  the  practice.  Some  of  his 
disciples  and  followers  have  sin©  dity  and  wider  extent  of 

operations,  far  surpassed  their  teacher  and  leader  -  to  whom,  however,  they 
award  the  highest  meed  of  praise  for  bringing  int 
this  srreat  benefit  to  the  agriculture  ol  1  I  the  best 

soils  on  James  river  are  comparatively  of  low  level,  as  it'  of  ancient  alluvial 
formation,  and  have  no  marl,  with  which  the  neighboring  higher  and  1 
lands  are  mostly  supplied.  Of  such  rich  lands  are  the  farms  of  Weyanoke, 
Sandy  Point,  Westover,  and  Shirley,  &c  in  Charles  City,  and  Brandon 
(Tpper  and  Lower,)  in  Prince  George — and  on  all  these  lands,  as  well  is 
21 


]6Q  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— PRACTICE 

some  others,  lime  has  been  largely  applied.  The  use  is  extending  to  the 
lands  on  all  the  tide  waters  of  the  state ;  and  it  has  recently  received  a 
new  impulse  from  the  low  price  at  which  northern  stone-lime  is  now 
brought  and  sold.  It  is  ready  slaked,  and  the  vessels  are  loaded  in  bulk. 
The  lime  is  sold  on  James  river  at  1 0  cents  the  bushel,  and  even  may  be 
contracted  for  at  5  cents,  from  vessels  that  come  for  cargoes  of  wood, 
and  would  come  empty  but  for  bringing  lime.  The  greater  lightness  and 
cheaper  transportation  of  lime  will  enable  it  to  be  applied  where  marl 
eould  not  be  carried  with  profit ;  and  with  the  two,  there  will  be  but  little 
of  lower  Virginia  which  may  not  be  profitably  improved  by  calcareous 


*  Extract  from  "  Report  to  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  on  the  most  important 
recent  improvements  of  asriculture  in  lower  Virginia,  and  the  most  important  defects 
yet  remaining,"  Farmers'  Register,  p.  257,  vol.  x. 


D.  H.  HILL  LIBRARY 
North  Carolina  State  College 


E  s  s  \  \ 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES. 


PART  THIRD— AH'r.MMV 


INTRODUCTORY   REMARKS. 


h*  the  foregoing  exposition  of  theory  and  practice,  it  lias  been  the  object 
and  effort  of  the  author  to  embrace  whatever  seemed  necessary  for  proof 
or  for  illustration  ;  and  to  omit  every  thing  else,  lest  too  much  of  amplifica- 
tion or  digression  should  weaken  rather  than  strengthen  the  main  positions. 
Thus  it  is  believed  that  the  foregoing  chapters,  as  argument  and  proof, 
serve  to  establish  the  series  of  propositions  which  were  at  first  advanced 
and  throughout  contended  for.  Still  there  remained  many  minor  but  inte- 
resting subjects  more  or  less  intimately  connected  with  the  investigation, 
and  which  well  deserved  more  extended  discussion,  and  the  consideration 
of  those  readers  who  should  desire  to  pursue  farther  the  general  object  of  this 
essay.  These  subjects  will  be  treated  separately  in  the  different  arti- 
cles of  this  appendix;  which  may  be  read,  it  is  believed,  with  both  interest 
and  benefit  by  the  more  inquiring  class  of  readers  ;  or  may  be  passed  over, 
by  the  more  cursory  and  careless,  without  detriment  to  the  arguments  and 
facts  of  the  preceding  portion  and  regular  body  of  the  work. 

Among  the  most  important  of  the  subjects  to  be  thus  treated  at  length, 
will  be  the  remarkable  and  extensive  deposites  of  gypseous  earth,  or  green- 
sand  earth,  in  lower  Virginia,  and  its  action  as  manure— the  formation  of 
prairies,  (or  lands  divested  of  trees)— and  the  causes  of,  and  remedies  for 
malaria,  and  its  train  of  diseases,  which  serve,  aided  by  the  operation  of  the 
evil  legislative  policy  of  Virginia,  so  grievously  to  afflict  this  now  otherwise 
most  fortunate  and  highly  blessed  agricultural  region.  Various  other  arti- 
cles will  be  presented,  whirl)  will  be  but  extensions  of  different  parts  of  the 
foregoing  text,  and  which  will  serve  as  additional  proofs  or  illustrations  of 
some  of  the  positions  before  presented  and  maintained. 


NOTR  I. — Extenrim  of  subject  <ii  page  54. 

PROOFS  OF  THE  EXISTENCE  OF  Af'in  snil.s,  FURNISHED    HY  Tlir    RECENT  RBflEAl 
or  (  HI 

The  •Timii  <1,  cliiwi,'  is  a  French  translation,  by  Esslinger,  of  the  volu- 
minous and  valuable  work  of  the  great  Swedish  chemist,  lier/.elius.  The 
first  edition  of  the  original  work,  in  the  German  language,  and  the  Frencl 


jgg  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

translation  of  it  were  in  the  course  of  publication  at  the  same  time ;  and  the 
first  volumes  of  the  latter  were  published  at  Paris,  before  the  latter  volumes 
of  the  original  work  had  been  sent  to  the  press  at  Stockholm.  The  sixth 
volume  of  the  French  translation,  from  which  I  have  translated  the  follow- 
ing: extract  into  English,  was  printed  in  1632.  It  is  not  known  to  me  whe- 
ther the  original  work  is  in  this  country  [1835.] 

The  following  passages  contain  the  opinions  of  Berzelius,  and  of  other 
chemists,  on  humin  and  humic  acids,  or  as  called  here,  geine  and  geic  acid, 
and  which  were  referred  to  in  the  quotation  from  Rennie,  at  page  54.  It 
will  be  left  to  the  reader  to  decide  how  far  my  views  of  acid  soils  are  sup- 
ported by  these  new  opinions  of  chemists,  founded  upon  chemical  analyses 
of  the  substances  in  question.  It  is  proper  to  state  that  this  new  doctrine 
of  geic  or  humic  acid  has  not  passed  uncontroverted.  It  is  altogether 
denied  by  Raspail,  a  French  chemist,  and  who  is  a  later  writer  than  Ber- 
zelius. 

This  article  will  offer  scarcely  any  thing  of  interest  to  most  readers, 
and  is  one  of  those  which  will  be  generally  passed  over.  Its  substance 
might  indeed  have  been  given  more  concisely,  and  perhaps  in  a  more  at- 
tractive form,  if  my  object  had  been  merely  to  exhibit  the  opinions  now  ge- 
nerally received  among  scientific  men  concerning  acid  in  soil.  But  it  was 
also  designed  to  exhibit  what  was  the  utmost  possible  extent  of  scientific 
authority  for  this  doctrine,  so  far  as  could  have  been  known  in  this  country 
when  the  last  preceding  edition  of  this  essay  was  published  in  1835.  When 
my  still  earlier  editions  asserted  the  same  doctrine,  as  then  and  now,  there 
was  not  only  no  scientific  authority  for  acid  in  soil,  but  all  authority  was 
opposed,  either  directly  or  indirectly. 

[translation.] 

Products  of  putrefaction  at  the  surface  of  the  earth. 

Mould  (terreau.)— The  vegetable  matters  which  rot  at  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  finish  by  leaving  a  blackish  brown  pulverulent  mass,  which  has  re- 
ceived the  name  of  mould  [humus.] 

All  the  vegetation  of  a  year,  which  dies  at  the  arrival  of  winter,  is  con- 
verted by  degrees  to  mould,  which  is  mixed  with  the  earth  in  which  the 
plant  grew ;  whence  it  comes  that  the  extreme  surface  of  the  earth  con- 
tains a  greater  or  less  proportion  of  mould,  which  serves  for  the  nutriment 
of  the  succeeding  growth  of  plants.  This  mould,  such  as  it  is  found  in 
the  earth,  is  often  mingled  with  the  products  of  a  less  advanced  putrefac- 
tion, or  even  with  vegetable  parts  not  changed,  principally  a  great  quantity 
of  small  roots.  If  we  examine  the  mould,  such  as  it  is  found  in  cultivated 
soils,  it  is  found  to  be  in  a  mass  very  much  mixed ;  but  it  is  always  pos- 
sible to  extract  the  parts  which  characterize  moujd. 

During  the  transformation  of  the  vegetable  matters  to  mould,  the  fust 
portion  of  their  mass  is  changed  into  a  brownish  black  substance,  which 
presents  all  the  characters  of  apothem&  when  we  have  separated  from  it 
the  unaltered  extract,  which  the  apotheme  draws  with  it.  The  salts  of 
such  aoids  as  are  of  organic  origin,  contained  in  the  vegetable  matter,  are 
destroyed,  so  that  the  elements  of  the  acid  are  resolved  into  water  and 
carbonic  acid,  whilst  the  base  is  combined  with  the  substance  analogous 

*  What  Berzelius  calls  apotheme  is  "  a  deposite  slightly  soluble  in  water,  produced 
in  an  aqueous  solution  of  vegetable  extract  during  slow  evaporation,  and  containing  a 
larger  proportion  of  carbon,  than  does  an  equal  weight  of  extract." 


CALCAKEOI'n  MANURES— APPENDIX  Jgy 

to  apotheme,  which  makes  part  of  the  mould.  The  salts  of  acids  of  mineral 
origin  are  preserved,  unless  they  are  soluble,  in  which  case  the  rain  car- 
ries them  off.  In  addition,  mould  contains  a  substance  but  slightly  soluble 
la  water,   which  colors  the  liquid  yellow,  and  a<  is  substance 

which  is  entirely  Insoluble,  and    which  appears  to  be  one  of  the  products  oi 
miction,  still  more  advanced,  of  organic  matters. 
To  give  an  example  of  a  completed  formation  ol  l  vegetable 

origin,  I  shall  here  state  the  results  of  an  analysis  to  which  Braconnot  sub- 
I  some  wheat,  which  had  remained  during  many  centuries  in  a  damp 
vault,  the   issues  from  which  were  stopped  up  by  earth,  and  of  which  the 
existence  was  forgotten,  until   by  chance  it  was  again  The 

grains  had  preserved  their  form,  and  the  brightness  of  their  outside  skin  ; 
but  they  were  black,  and  were  reduced  by  the  slightest  pressure  to  a  black 
powder.  The  water  with  which  they  were  boiled  was  colored  yellow,  and 
it  left,  after  being  evaporated,  a  saline  mass  Of  a  brownish  yellow,  which 
burnt  with  slight  explosion  when  heated,  and  which,  besides  the  substance 
cited  soluble  in  water,  contained  nitrate  of  potash,  nitrate  of  lime,  and  a 
little  of  the  muriates  of  potash  and  of  lime.  The  nitrates  were  the  Result 
of  the  oxidation  of  the  nitrogen  contained  in  the  gluten  and  vegetable 
albumen,  and  of  the  combination  of  the  nitric  acid  thus  produced,  with  the 
bases  previously  combined  with  vegetable  acids.  The  weight  of  this  mass 
soluble  in  water,  including  the  salts  and  all  the  other  principles,  did  not 
exceed  1J  per  cent,  of  the  weight  of  the  black  grain.  When  the  part  in- 
soluble in  water  was  boiled  in  alcohol,  a  small  trace  of  a  brown  substance 
was  taken  up,  which  remained  after  evaporating  the  alcohol,  and  had  the 
consistence  of  wax.  The  mass,  exhausted  of  its  soluble  parts  by  boiling 
water  and  alcohol,  was  then  heated  slowly  with  a  weak  solution  of  caustic 
potash,  which  became  saturated  and  colored  of  a  blackish  brown ;  and  this 
treatment  was  continued  as  long  as  new  potash  lie  took  up  any  thing. 
This  substance  was  precipitated  from  the  solution  by  an  acid ;  it  was  the 
body  similar  to  apotheme  which  has  already  been  mentioned,  and  of  which 
the  weight  amounted  to  :io£  per  cent.  The  portion  of  matter  insoluble  in 
the  alkali  preserved  the  same  appearance.  This,  exposed  to  the  action  of 
diluted  muriatic  acid,  yielded  to  it  a  certain  quantity  of  lime,  of  oxide  of 
iron,  and  of  phosphate  of  lime.  The  residue  was  again  acted  on  by  potash, 
which  took  up  a  new  and  very  large  proportion  Of  the  body  similar  to 
apotheme.  This  was  after  that  combined  with  lime,  and  resisted  in  that 
state  the  action  of  potash.  This  calcareous  combination  amounted  to  42 
hundredths.  The  30  per  cent,  remaining  consisted  of  a  black  carbona- 
ceous matter,  insoluble  in  the  solvent  used. 

If  cultivated  soil  is  treated  in  the  same  manner,  similar  results  will  be 
obtained,  with  this  difference,  that  the  earthy  matter  of  the  soil  is  found 
mixed  with  the  products  which  are  obtained,  whilst  no  soluble  salts  are 
met  with,  they  being  generally  carried  off  by  the  rains. 

To  describe  the  constituent  principles  of  mould,  it  is  necessary  to  desig- 
nate them  by  particular  names.  I  will  then  call  extract  of  mould  the  body 
soluble  in  water,  and  I  will  give  the  name  of  geitu  to  the  matter  similar 
to  apotheme,  which  constitutes  the  principal  mass  of  mould.  As  to  the 
coally  substance  insoluble  in  water,  alcdnol,  acids  and  alkalies,  I  will  desig- 
nate it  by  the  name  of  carbonaceous  mould. 

Extract  of  mould.—  We  obtain  this  substance  by  drawing  it  from  the 
mould  by  the  action  of  cold  water,  which  becomes  thereby  colored  yellow, 
and  which  leaves,  after  evaporation,  a  yellow  extract  of  a  bitter  taste,  and 

•  Or  Aumtn,  as  termed  by  other  authors. 


170  CALCAREOUS  MANUUKs-APPENDIV 

from  which  some  geine  is  separated  when  it  is  again  acted  on  by  water. 
If  this  solution  is  left  to  evaporate  spontaneously  in  contact  with  air,  it 
becomes  covered  with  an  insoluble  pellicle,  and  when  a  certain  degree  of 
concentration  has  been  reached,  the  liquor  becomes  turbid.  The  solution 
is  precipitated  by  the  salts  of  tin  and  of  lead ;  after  the  precipitation,  the 
liquor  is  without  color.  According  to  Korte,  the  sulphuretted  hydrogen 
gas  precipitates  it  also.  This  extractive  matter  is  contained  in  the  water 
of  many  springs  and  streams.  The  water  of  the  springs  of  Porla,  in  West- 
rogotha,  contains  so  great  a  quantity  that  it  is  colored  yellow.  When  the 
iron  contained  in  this  water  is  oxidized  from  the  air,  the  extract  of  mould 
is  precipitated  with  the  oxide  of  iron,  and  the  water  becomes  clear. 

Geine. — This  substance  has  received  different  names.  Braconnot  has 
given  to  it  the  name  of  ulmin,  for  reasons  which  I  have  exhibited  and  op- 
posed in  a  former  part  of  this  work.  Dobereiner  and  Sprengel  gave  to  it 
the  name  of  acid  of  humus,  because  it  combines  with  the  earths  and  alka- 
lies. But  for  the  same  reason  we  might  give  the  name  of  acid  to  more 
than  the  half  of  all  vegetable  bodies. 

Geine  does  not  exist  in  vegetable  earth  only;  soot  contains  it  also,  and 
according  to  Braconnot,  it  is  formed  when  the  saw-dust  of  wood  is  ex- 
posed to  the  action  of  caustic  potash.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  obtain 
geine  in  a  state  of  purity.  One  part  of  geine  which  is  met  with  in  a  natu- 
ral state  is  in  combination  with  bases ;  but  when  we  attempt  to  remove 
these  by  an  acid,  the  geine  combines  in  part  with  the  excess  of  acid,  and 
acquires  itself  (in  part)  the  property  or  reddening  vegetable  blues.  Geine 
possesses  all  the  properties  of  apotheme,  and  it  is  produced  like  other  apo- 
themes;  that  is  to  say,  by  the  action  of  the  air  on  dissolved  extract  of 
mould.  In  the  natural  state  it  does  not  act  chemically,  either  like  the  acids 
or  the  alkalies.  Nor  does  it  have  any  effect  on  the  color  of  vegetable  blues. 
It  is  but  slightly  soluble  in  water,  which  it  colors  of  a  pale  yellow;  is  still 
less  soluble  in  alcohol,  and  insoluble  in  ether.  Exposed  to  the  action  of  heat 
it  takes  fire,  burns  at  first  with  flame,  then  without  flame  like  spunk,  spread- 
ing a  peculiar  odor,  something  like  that  of  burning  peat.  Submitted  to  dry 
distillation,  it  is  decomposed,  gives  half  its  weight  of  a  charcoal  having 
a  metallic  lustre,  of  empyreumatic  oil,  an  acid  water  containing  acetic  acid 
and  sometimes  ammonia,  some  carburetted  hydrogen,  and  a  little  carbonic 
acid  gas.  If  geine  is  held  suspended  in  water,  through  which  a  current  of 
chlorine  is  passed,  this  whitens  it,  and  precipitates  a  white  resin-like  sub- 
stance. Iodine  is  without  action  on  it.  If  we  add  an  acid  to  aj}  alka- 
line solution  of  geine,  the  geine  is  precipitated.  If  the  whole  of  the  geine 
is  not  precipitated,  that  part  which  is  precipitated  retains  in  combination  a 
small  portion  of  the  base,  and  leaves,  when  it  is  burnt,  a  small  quantity  of 
alkaline  ashes.  If,  on  the  contrary,  an  excess  of  acid  is  poured  into  the  al- 
kaline solution,  the  liquor  is  discolored,  and  the  precipitated  geine  strongly 
reddens  vegetable  blues,  a  property  which  cannot,  be  removed  by  placing 
the  geine  on  a  filter,  and  pouring  water  upon  it.  So  long  as  the  liquor 
which  passes  through  the  filter  contains  free  acid  it  is  not  colored  ;  then  it 
begins  to  be  colored,  and  finally  it  dissolves  as  much  as  two-thirds  of  its 
weight  of  the  precipitated  mass.  These  acid  properties  belong  in  part  to 
the  geine,  which  owes  them  to  the  action  of  the  alkali,  and  which  may,  in 
this  case,  be  called  geic  acid ;  they  ought  to  be  in  part  attributed  to  a  com- 
bination of  the  geine  with  the  precipitated  acid.  According  to  Einhoff,  it 
is  the  latter  case  which  is  really  presented,  and  the  acid  cannot  be  carried 
off,  but  with  the  aid  of  an  alkali.  Sprengel.  on  the  other  hand,  pretends 
to  have  freed  the  geine,  by  prolonged  washing,  from  the  muriatic  acid 
which  had  served  to  precipitate  it:  and  to  make  certain  the  absence  of  the 


CALCAREOUS  MANUKES-APPftrfDIX.  \J  \ 

muriatic  acid,  he  has  mixed  the  washed  geine  with  a  little  nitrate  "I  silver. 
After  evaporation  to  dryness,  and  calcination,  the  residue,  treated  by  nitric 
acid,  was  dissolved,  without  leaving  any  muriate  of  silver.     But  as  muriate 

of  silver,  like  the  other  salts  of  silver,  is  reduced  to  a  u.etallic  state  by 
containing  carbon  and  I  on  itself  effects  the  same 

•  ■  when  disengaged  along  with  water,  this  result  proves  nothing.  In 
eine,  they  have  attributed  the  properties  of 
that  which  has  been  changed  by  the  action  of  an  alkali,  to  the  geine  which 
has  not  been  altered.  The  geine  which  reddens  vegetable  blues,  is  the 
same,  whatever  may  have  been  the  acid  which  served  for  its  precipitation. 
Its  saturated  aqueous  solution  is  of  a  yellowish  brown,  and  the  combina- 
tion is  precipitated  anew  by  acids,  excepting  the  carbonic,  and  the  sulphur- 
etted hydrogen.  Collected  upon  aiilter.it  is  presented  under  the  form  of 
a  gelatinous  mass,  of  a  taste  slightly  acid,  astringent— and  by  drying.it 
contracts  strongly,  and  forms  clots  of  a  deep  brown,  almost  black,  with  a 
vitreous  fracture,  and  which  are  not  dissolved  again  in  water  after  being 
once  completely  dried.  The  aqueous  solution  of  the  acid  geine,  is  precipi- 
tated by  the  salts  of  lead,  of  tin,  and  of  iron  ;  but  is  not  disturbed  by  gela- 
tine, albumen,  starch,  gum,  tannin,  or  solution  of  soap.  According  to 
Braconnot,  it  is  precipitated  by  a  mixture  of  the  solution  of  gelatine  and 
gallic  acid.  The  dried  geine  is  dissolved  with  difficulty,  and  incompletely, 
in  alcohol.  The  solution  reddens  i  egetable  blues,  whilst  the  part  not  dis- 
solved is  without  this  power,  though  it  still  preserves  the  property  of  com- 
bining with  potash.  Geine  is  destroyed  by  concentrated  acids.  The  sul- 
phuric acid  dissolves  it,  taking  at  the  same  time  a  black  color,  carbonizing 
it,  disengaging  sulphurous  acid  gas,  and  leaving  for  residue  the  ordinary 
products  which  result  from  the  action  of  this  acid.  By  the  addition  of  sur- 
oxide  (or  black  oxide)  of  manganese,  carbonic  acid  gas  is  disengaged. 
The  nitric  acid  dissolves  and  decomposes  geine,  with  a  disengagement  of 
nitric  oxide  gas,  and  carbonic  acid  gas.  If  the  solution  is  evaporated  to 
the  consistence  of  syrup,  and  then  mixed  with  water,  there  is  precipitated  a 
peculiar  bitter  substance  in  powder,  and  there  are  found  in  the  solution, 
artificial  tannin  and  oxalic  acid. 

Geine  forms  soluble  combinations  with  alkalies.  When  an  excess  of 
geine  is  used,  the  caustic  alkalies  are  so  neutralized  by  this  substance,  that 
they  lose  their  peculiar  chemical  action  and  properties.  In  this  respect, 
geine  agrees  with  gluten,  vegetable  albumen,  the  brown  of  indigo,  the  sugar 
of  liquorice,  apotheme,  and  other  bodies  not  acid.  During  the  evaporation 
the  solution  furnishes  a  black  mass,  which  acquires  lustre  by  complete  dry- 
ing, and  splits,  and  is  easily  reduced  to  a  powder.  It  is  redissolved  in  wa- 
ter, its  taste  is  weak,  bitter  and  disagreeable.  Caustic  ammonia  gives  a 
like  mass,  soluble  in  water,  which  gives  up,  during  evaporation,  the  excess 
of  alkali  employed.  Geine  is  not  dissolved  always  in  alkaline  carbonates; 
when  it  is  so  dissolved,  these  carbonates  are  transformed,  half  into  % 
half  into  bi-carbonates.  When  the  solution  is  boiled,  the  bi-carbonate  is 
decomposed  with  disengagement  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  and  in  this  manner 
the  geine  drives  off  all  the  carbonic  acid.  If  a  solution  of  geine  in  car- 
bonate of  ammonia  Is  evaporated,  a  residue  is  obtained  containing  neu- 
tralized geate  of  ammonia.  The  solution  of  geine  in  caustic  potash,  in  ex- 
cess, absorbs  oxygen  from  the  air,  and  at  the  end  of  some  time,  the  alkali 
is  in  part  carbonated. 

Geine  firms  with  the  alkaline  earth*  pulverulent  combinations  but  little 
soluble,  which  have  an  external  resemblance  to  geine.  The  best  means  for 
obtaining  them  is  to  mix  a  solution  of  the  ceate  of  ammonia,  with  the  solu- 


J  72  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

tion  of  an  earthy  salt ;  the  combination  of  the  geine  with  the  earth  is  pre- 
cipitated, and  may  be  separated  by  filtration,  from  the  supernatant  fluid. 
In  the  humid  state,  these  compounds  are  slightly  soluble  in  water.  Accord- 
ing to  the  experiments  of  Sprengel,  one  part  of  geate  ofbarytes  is  dissolved 
in  5200  parts  of  water,  one  part  of  geatc  of  lime  is  soluble  in  2000  parts  of 
water,  and  one  part  of  geate  of  magnesia  in  100  parts  of  water,  cold. 
These  same  compounds  require  for  their  solution,  rather  smaller  proportions 
of  boiling  water.  After  having  been  completely  dried  they  will  no  more 
dissolve.  In  the  air,  the  base  is  combined  in  part  with  carbonic  acid,  and 
the  carbonate  which  results  therefrom  remains  in  the  state  of  mixture 
with  a  combination  of  geine,  and  of  a  base  analogous  to  a  supersalt.  The 
alkaline  carbonates  decompose  the  earthy  geates  ;  they  dissolve  the  geine, 
and  leave  the  base  in  the  state  of  carbonate.  According  to  Sprengel,  the- 
geates  of  lime  and  magnesia  are  dissolved  in  the  caustic  fixed  alkalies,  and 
in  the  carbonate  of  ammonia.  Other  chemists  have  not  arrived  at  the 
same  result;  and  according  to  them,  the  geate  of  potash,  acted  on  by  the 
hydrate  of  lime,  precipitates  all  the  geine.  The  geate  of  alumina  is  pre- 
cipitated when  a  solution  of  alum  is  mixed  with  a  solution  of  geate  of  pot- 
ash, or  of  ammonia.  This  compound  is  dissolved  in  4200  parts  of  cold 
water.  In  the  moist  state  it  is  dissolved  easily,  and  in  abundance,  in  the 
alkaline  carbonates  and  hydrates,  and  even  in  ammonia.  According  to 
Sprengel,  it  resists  the  decomposing  action  of  acids,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to 
extract  from  it  geine  exempt  from  alumine.  A  combination  is  obtained 
having  an  excess  of  alumine,  by  digesting  a  solution  of  the  geate  of  am- 
monia with  hydrate  of  alumina.  *  *  * 

Carbonaceous  mould. — The  substance  to  which  this  name  has  been  given 
has  been  but  little  examined.  It  is  insoluble  in  alkaline  liquors.  Its  color 
is  a  brown,  almost  black.  Placed  in  contact  with  a  body  in  combustion, 
it  takes  fire,  and  burns  without  flame  like  spunk.  According  to  the  experi- 
ments of  Th.  de  Saussure,  carbonaceous  mould  combines  with  the  oxygen 
of  the  air,  and  forms  carbonic  acid  gas,  and  when  it  is  left  a  long  time 
exposed  to  air  and  water,  it  becomes  by  slow  degrees  soluble  in  alkalies. 
The  acids  precipitate  it  from  the  alkaline  solution,  in  the  state'  of  acid 
geine.  When  cold,  the  sulphuric  acid  has  but  little  effect  on  it.  Accord- 
ing to  Braconnot,  the  nitric  acid  converts  it  at  a  gentle  heat  to  a  brown 
liquor,  in  which  water  produces  a  precipitate  of  a  chocolate  color,  which 
possesses  the  properties  of  acid  geine,  and  is  dissolved  without  residue  in 
the  alkalies. 

Soil  (Jterre  vegetale). — It  is  the  mixture  of  these  several  substances  with 
the  upper  layer  of  the  surface  of  the  earth,  which  constitutes  the  vegetable 
earth  or  soil,  properly  so  called.  Arable  land  is  a  bed  of  this  soil,  placed 
upon  a  bed  of  earth  which  contains  no  mould.  Its  fertility  depends  upon 
the  quantity  of  mould  which  it  contains.  Growing  plants  continually 
diminish  the  quantity  of  geine  contained  in  the  soil ;  and  when  the  plants 
are  carried  off  from  the  soil  on  which  they  grew,  which  happens  almost 
always  with  cultivated  land.it  is  finally  exhausted  to 'that  degree  as  to 
produce  nothing.  It  is  on  this  account  that  it  is  necessary  to  manure  land. 
The  matters  discharged  and  left  by  animals,  or  the  barn-yard  manure 
which  is  used  for  this  purpose,  are  by  degrees  converted  into  geine.  and 
thus  replace  the  matters  dissipated  by  vegetation.  Botanists,  who  have 
directed  their  attention  to  vegetable  physiology,  have  remarked  that  the 
plants  vegetate  well  enough  without  geine,  until  the  time  arrives  for  them 
to  commence  their  sexual  functions.  But  as  soon  as  these  are  ended  and 
the  fruit  begins  to  be  developed,  the  plants  absorb  a  great  quantity  of  the 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 


173 


nutritive  principles  contained  in  the  soil,  and  if  these  are  not  in  the  soil, 
the  Bower  (alia  without  forming  any  fruit.  The  experiments  to  which 
In.  de  Saussure  has  submitted  soil,  [terre  vegi  tale]  appear  to  demonstrate 
that  the  three  constituent  principles  of  mould  may  be  converted  the  one 
to  the  other,  under  the  alternately  preponderating  influence  of  air  and 
water.  Water  converts  to  the  extract  of  mould  a  part  of  the  insoluble 
contained  in  the  soil,  and  this  transformation  extends  more  and  more 
so  that  finally  the  greater  part  of  the  geine  becomes  soluble.  In  contaet 
with  the  air,  the  dissolved  matter  passes  again  to  the  state  of  geine  The 
carbonaceous  mould  which  changes  a  part  of  the  air  into  carbonic  acid,  is 
itsell  changed  by  air  into  geine  and  into  extract  of  mould,  and  it  is  upon 
this  transformation  that  appear  to  depend  in  part  the  advantages  derived 
from  the  tillage  of  the  soil,  which  is  divided  by  the  action  of  the  plough 
and  exposed  to  the  immediate  influence  of  the  air.  In  this  maimer  all  the 
parts  of  the  soil  contribute  to  nutrition  ;  whilst  it  is  probable  that  the  solu- 
tion of  the  extract  of  mould,  that  of  the  geate  of  lime,  and  perhaps  also 
that  of  the  geate  of  alumine,  are  Immediately  absorbed  by  the  roots.  Durin" 
a  heavy  rain,  this  solution  penetrates  the  interior,  and  often  to  very  deep 
beds  of  the  sterile  earth  ;  but  notwithstanding  that,  it  is  not  lost  to  vegetable 
life ;  for  the  roots  of  trees  seek  it,  and  bring  it  back  as  matter  suitable 
for  their  nourishment. 

Experience  has  demonstrated  that  quick-lime  and  the  carbonate  of  lime 
mingled  with  the  soil,  favor  the  vegetation  produced  thereon.  Chemistry 
has  not  yet  explained,  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  the  power  which  lime  thus 
exerts;  however,  it  is  known  that  when  the  soil  contains  this  alkaline 
earth,  or,  in  its  place,  ashes  only,  the  mould  is  quickly  consumed,  and  vege- 
tation becomes  more  rich  in  proportion.  It  has  thence  been  conch..!,  , I 
that  lime  acts,  partly  in  exciting  the  plant  to  greater  activity,  and  partly  in 
rendering  more  soluble  the  principles  of  the  soil,  which  are  absorbed  by 
the  roots  when  dissolved  in  the  water  which  the  earth  has  imbibed.  Lime 
is  not  then  a  true  [or  alimentary]  manure,  it  contributes  only  to  pro- 
mote and  hasten  the  absorption  of  the  principles  which  serve  to  nourish 
the  plant ;  and  that  lime  may  be  serviceable,  it  is  necessary  to  introduce 
into  the  soil  improved  by  lime,  materials  proper  to  furnish  new  quantities 
of  mould.  The  lime  or  alkali  contained  in  ashes  acts  also  in  hastening 
the  change  of  organic  matters  to  mould. 

It  is  known  by  experience,  that  gypsum  also  augments  the  fertility  of  the 
earth,  especially  when  leguminous  plants  are  cultivated.  It  is  not  probable 
that  this  neutral  salt  acts  in  the  same  manner  as  lime,  and  we  are  ignorant 
of  what  is  its  mode  of  acting. 

Soil  [terre  vegetate]  possesses  the  property  of  being  able  to  retain  as 
much  as  three-fourths  of  its  weight  of  water  without  appearing  moist,  and, 
like  charcoal,  it  condenses  atmospheric  humidity.  It  owes  this  property  to 
the  geine  which  it  contains,  which  is  one  of  the  substances  that,  of  all 
known,  absorbs  moisture  with  most  energy.  Mould  [terreau]  can  absorb 
double  its  weight  of  water,  without  appearing  moist  ;  an. I  alter  being 
dried,  it  draws  from  the  air,  in  less  than  twenty-four  hours,  a  quantity  of 
water,  which  may  vary  according  to  the  humidity  of  the  atmosphere,  from 
80  to  100  per  cent,  of  its  weight.  This  property  depends  upon  Its  light 
and  dust-like  consistence;  and  geine,  of  which  the  fracture  becomes  vi- 
treous from  its  course  of  chemical  treatment,  is  deprived  ol  this  physical 
property,  which  is  of  the  utmost  Importance  to  vegetable  life.  For,  in  con- 
sequence of  this  property,  mould  retains  water  in  the  earth  and  obstructs 
its  evaporation  ;  and  it  is  probably  this  water  which  maintains  the  extre- 
mities of  the  roots  in  the  state  to  perform  their  functions. 
22 


174 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 


It  is  usual  to  divide  soil  into  fertile  earth,  and  acid  earth.*     The  first  is 
very  common,  the  second  presents  itself  but  rarely.     It  produces  nothing, 
unless  it  be  mosses ;  it  is  in  marshy  places  that  it  is  ordinarily  found.     It 
is  in  general  composed  in  the  same  manner  as  fertile  earth ;  but  whilst  in 
the  latter  the  geine  is  united  with  lime,  and  perhaps  with  other  bases  be- 
sides, it   is   in   the  acid  earth  combined  with  acids,  which,  according  to 
Einhof,  are  the  phosphoric  and  acetic  acids/-    It  is  for  this  reason  that  it 
has  the  property  of  reddening  vegetable  blues,  and  that  it  gives,  by  calcina- 
tion, ashes  which  contain  phosphoric  acid.     Todrydistillation.it  yields  a 
great  quantity  of  an  acid   liquid,  containing  the  acetate  of  ammonia;  and 
when  it  is  distilled,  after  having  mixed  it  with  water,  a  liquid  product  is 
obtained,  which  reddens  vegetable  blues,  and  likewise  contains  acetate  of 
ammonia.     In  opposition  to  Einhof,  Sprengel  affirms  that  the  acid  geine  is 
produced  only  for  the  want  of  bases,  and  that  its  acid  action  proceeds 
only  from  the  geic  acid  which  it  contains,  and  not  from  the  presence  of  a 
foreign  acid.     De  Pontin  has  made  the  analysis  of  an  acidf  soil  taken  from 
the  plain  of  Eckerud,  in  the  government  of  Elfsburg,  in  Sweden,  and  found 
that  the  geine  had  there  combined  with  the  malic,  acetic,  and  phosphoric 
acids.     The  dissolving  of  the  soluble  principles  of  the  soil  in  boiling  water. 
left  to  be  deposited  when  the  hydrate  of  lime  was  mixed  therein,  these  acids 
as  well  as  geine,  so  that  there  was  found  afterwards  in  the  water  only 
traces  of  the  acetate  and  hydrate  of  lime.     But  when  a  current  of  carbonic 
acid  gas  was  made  to  pass  through  this  precipitate,  steeped  in  water,  the 
geine  remained,  without  dissolving,  in  combination  with  the  carbonate  of 
lime  produced,  while  there  was  formed  a  solution  slightly  yellowish,  which 
left  after  evaporation  a  residue  of  calcareous  salts.      This  residue  was 
treated  by  alcohol,  which  took  up  a  certain  quantity  of  acetate  of  lime,  and 
left  a  salt  of  lime  of  a  gummy  appearance,  which  was  soluble  in  water, 
and  possessed  the  properties  of  the  malate  ol  lime.     In  burning  the  geate 
of  lime,  and  taking  up  the  residue  by  muriatic  acid,  there  was  obtained  a 
solution  which  when  treated  by  ammonia  gave  a  small  precipitate  of  phos- 
phate of  lime.     The  greater  part  of  the  acid  geine  was  dissolved  in  the 
carbonate  of  ammonia.     Hydrate  of  lime  was  poured  into  the  solution, 
which  precipitated  the  geine  without  leaving  in  solution  a  salt  of  lime. 
But  when  after  having  washed  the  precipitate,  it  was  calcined,  and  the 
residue  treated  with  muriatic  acid,  there  was  obtained  a  solution,  which, 
after  the  expulsion  of  the  carbonic  acid,  gave  with  ammonia  an  abundant 
precipitate  of  the  phosphate   of  lime.     1  hese   experiments   confirm  those 
given  by  Einhof. 
An  acid  soil  becomes  fertile  when  there  is  mixed  with  it  lime  or  ashes 

*  It  is  not  a  little  strange  to  say  it  is  "  usual  [dans  I'usage]  to  divide  soils  into  fertile 
earth  and  acid  earth,"  when  the  acid  nature  of  any  has  been  treated  by  Berzelius  as  a 
new  discovery,  and  of  which  the  truth  is  not  admitted  by  all  of  those  who  had  taken 
the  subject  into  consideration.  II  this  division  bad  indeed  been  usual,  there  would 
have  been  no  want  of  numerous  authorities  (whatever  might  be  their  value)  for  the 
acidity  of  soil. — Translator. 

fin  the  French  version,  this  word  was  "pride,"  and  also  in  the  two  other  places 
where  it  is  used  below  soon  after.  But  though  the  context  made  it  almost  certain  that 
this  was  an  error  of  the  press,  and  that  the  word  should  have  been  ucide,  I  did  not 
venture  to  make  the  alteration  in  a  preceding  edition,  but  merely  stated  in  a  note,  the 
doubt,  and  probable  grounds  of  error.  Very  lately,  (1812,)  I  saw  for  the  first  time  the 
German  work  by  Berzelius,  in  the  library  of  Professor  J.  C.  Booth  of  Philadelphia,  and 
by  aid  of  his  knowledge  of  the  language,  I  was  enabled  to  make  sure  that  the  error  was 
as  1  bad  supposed.  Though  the  book  lately  examined  was  the  second  edition,  the  ex- 
tract was  translated  (through  the  French)  from  Berzelius'  first  edition,  and  there  is  no 
difference  in  the  above  paragraph,  except  that  in  the  latter  he  has  added  the  term  "  un- 
fruitful" to  "  acid  soil,"  [unfruchtbnre  saure  Dammerdc] — Translator. 


CALCAREOl  S  M  PPF.NDIX.  175 

and  earth,  inasmuch  as  tl  Jta  principal]  The  report 

of  Spi  hi  it  1  tills  character  of  soil]  is  produced  in 

■  of  the  absence  of  the  bases  which  are  found  in  fertile  earth, 
is  certainly  true;  but  it  does  not  follow  from  that,  that  it  owes  its  acidity 
solely  d)  the  acid  nature  of  the  peine.     The  1  soil  always  con- 

tain a  great  quantity  of  silex. 


NOTE  II. —  Extension  of  subject  of  pi 

ADDITIONAL    I'ROOF    OFFERED,  BV    THE    PRODUCTION    AND    EXISTENCE  OF    BLACK  WA- 
TERS, OF  THE  ACTION   OF  LIME  IN  i  0MB1NIITO  VEGETABLE  MATTERS  WITH  SOIL. 

Every  person  who  has  seen  much  of  the  different  parts  "I  lower  Virgi- 
nia, (to  go  no  farther  for  examples,)  must  have  remarked  the  dark  perma- 
nent color  of  the  waters  of  many  streams  and  mill-ponds ;  and  that  Others, 
whether  when  clear  or  when  turbid,  ies  and  entirely  without 

any  tinge  of  this  peculiar  coloring  matter.  The  waters  thus  colored  by  ve- 
getable matter  are  more  deeply  tinted  at  some  times  than  at  others;  but  are 
always  strongly  thus  marked.  These  waters,  when  several  feet  in  depth, 
appear  to  the  eye  quite  black  or  very  dark  brown.  The  same  if  viewed  in 
a  drinking  glass  would  appear  of  the  color  of  Sherry  wine,  and  might  present 
some  shade  between  the  palest  and  deepest  tints  of  such  wine.  This  color  has 
"•nothing  of  muddiness;  for  these  waters  are  as  clear  from  suspended  clay  or 
mud  as  any  other  waters  not  so  colored  in  the  slightest  degree.  In  the  county 
in  which  nearly  all  my  life  has  been  passed,  Prince  George,  these  different 
kinds  of  waters  are  to  be  seen  in  stronger  contrast,  because  of  their  close 
neighborhood.  All  the  streams  which  flow  into  Blackwater  river,  as  well  as 
the  main  stream,  which  that  name  so  well  describes,  bom  its  head  to  its  out- 
let, are  colored  deep!}',  and  it  is  believed  without  exception.  ( in  the  contrary, 
the  streams  which  How  into  .lames  river  often  rise  from  sources  very  near  to 
some  of  the  others,  the  head-springs  being  on  opposite  sides  of  the  same 
dividing  ridge  of  level  table  land,  and  in  lands  precisely  alike.  Some  of 
these  lands  are  of  close  and  stiff  soil,  and  some  more  sandy  and  quite 
light;  but  all  are  level,  poor,  and  acid  lands,  and  are  mostly  still  under 
lores!  growth. 

All  persons,  whether  of  the  most  or  the  least  observant  class,  would 
concur  in  the  opinion  that  this  color  proceeds  from  vegetable  matter.  This 
is  obvious  even  in  the  waters  of  heavy  rains,  which  when  more  than  the 
level  ridge  lands  can  absorb,  flow  off,  and  are  sometimes  for  a  day  or  more 
thus  passing  in  temporary  streams  to  the  nearest  valley,  or  other  descent. 
These  surplus  waters,  while  yet  on  the  highest  woodland,  are  colored  to  a 
greater  or  less  depth  of  tint;  and  just  as  much  in  those  which  take  their 
course  towards  James  river,  as  the  others  which  flow  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion to  the  Blackwater.  The  difference  is  that  the  former  soon  lose  all  such 
coloring  matter,  and  in  no  case  carry  it  to  or  even  near  James  river,  whilst 
the  other  waters  increase  in  depth  of  color  with  the  length  of  their  course, 
or  the  duration  of  time  they  remain  in  the  mill-ponds  they  pass  through,  or 
in  the  sluggish  Blackwater  river. 

The  supply  of  coloring  matter  is  principally  furnished  by  the  dead  and 
fallen  leaves  in  the  poor  forest  land,  and  is  doubtless  increased  afterwards 
both  by  the  partial  evaporation  of  the  water,  and  by  its  dissolving  still 
more  of  the  soluble  vegetable  extract  in  the  Hat  swampy  grounds  through 
which  the  streams  flow  into  the  Blackwater.  This  might  indeed  satisfactorily 


176  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

account  for  these  waters  being  more  deeply  colored  than  those  which  pass 
by  a  more  rapid  descent  to  James  river.  But  these  different  circumstances 
do  not  serve  at  all  to  explain  why  the  latter  waters  should  soon  lose,  if  they 
had  it  at  first,  the  slightest  trace  of  color. 

The  like  circumstances  are  probably  to  be  found  to  more  or  less  extent 
in  most  of  the  counties  on  our  tide- water  rivers,  as  most  of  them  have  poor 
forest  lands  and  some  swampy  streams  in  the  interior. 

As  the  opposite  circumstances  of  the  presence  or  absence  of  color  in 
different  waters  is  certainly  not  caused  by  such  difference  in  the  sources  of 
supply,  they  must  be  caused  by  some  subsequent  action  which  serves  to 
clear  the  waters  in  one  locality,  by  combining  with  and  taking  off  the  dis- 
solved coloring  matter,  and  which  action  does  not  take  place  elsewhere, 
because  there  is  no  such  efficient  agent  present.  That  agent  I  take  to  be 
carbonate  of  lime,  or  some  other  salt  of  linie  in  the  soil  in  the  one  case, 
and  which  is  present  in  quantity  altogether  insufficient  for  such  action  in 
the  other  case.  According  to  the  views  which  were  presented  (page  58) 
in  regard  to  the  power  of  calcareous  earth  to  combine  chemically  with 
vegetable  matter,  if  the  colored  waters  should  flow  over  soils  furnished  with 
calcareous  matter,  or  into  streams  impregnated  with  any  salts  of  lime,  it 
would  follow  that  the  suspended  or  dissolved  vegetable  extract  would  com- 
bine with  the  calcareous  matter  of  the  soil  in  the  water,  and  the  new  com- 
bination be  precipitated,  and  be  given  to  the  soil,  as  manure,  either  imme- 
diately or  remotely.  This  effect  would  be  greatly  aided  if  the  streams 
swollen  by  rains  actually  passed  in  contact  with  and  washed  away  exposed 
banks  of  marl.  All  recent  rain  water  contains  a  small  amount  of  carbonic 
acid,  and  that  impregnation  enables  water  to  dissolve  a  proportional  quan- 
tity of  carbonate  of  lime,  which  is  insoluble  in  water  without  this  addition 
of  carbonic  acid.  Therefore,  in  such  circumstances  the  swollen  streams 
and  land  floods  would  necessarily  dissolve  some  carbonate  of  lime,  which 
would  be  thus  placed  immediately  and  fully  in  mixture  and  perfect  contact 
with  the  before  dissolved  vegetable  coloring  matter,  and  next  must  take 
place  the  combination  of  the  two,  and  precipitation  of  the  compound  ma-' 
nure.  The  consequence  must  be,  that  the  lands  thus  overflowed  must  be 
more  or  less  enriched  by  every  heavy  rain ;  while  the  lands  overflowed  by 
the  colored  waters  receive,  or  retain,  nothing  of  soluble  vegetable  matter  from 
this  source,  and  may  even  lose  part  of  what  they  had  before  received  from 
the  decay  of  their  own  growth,  or  other  sources,  by  its  being  dissolved 
and  carried  off  by  such  overflowing  waters. 

Now  let  us  see  how  the  actual  results  agree  with  these  different  causes, 
so  far  as  the  causes  are  known  to  exist.  In  the  limited  region  particularly 
referred  to  above,  the  low  grounds,  subject  to  inundation  by  rains  in  a 
state  of  nature,  and  having  beds  of  marl  which  the  stream  cuts  through, 
are  of  much  richer  soil  than  any  others,  though  the  quantity  of  marl  displaced 
by  the  stream  (if  indeed  any  such  displacing  be  perceptible)  would  seem 
altogether  too  small  in  amount  to  produce  such  extent  of  fertilization  by 
direct  action.  And  it  is  believed,  whether  marl  beds  be  so  exposed  or  not, 
that  the  low-grounds  on  the  streams  of  colorless  water  are  always  much 
better  6oils,  and  of  more  durable  fertility,  than  those  washed  by  colored 
waters.  The  latter  soils  being  often  swampy,  are  full  of  vegetable  matter, 
and  of  course  would  be  very  productive  when  first  drained  and  cultivated. 
But  these  soils  are  far  from  being  among  the  most  durable,  and  they  are 
even  at  first,  and  when  in  best  condition,  very  inferior  lands  to  most  low- 
grounds  of  prime  quality ;  and  the  latter  are  always  penetrated  by  streams, 
or  had  been  sometimes  covered  by  floods,  which,  however  turbid  at  certain 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES -APPENDIX.  177 

times  with  suspended  clay  and  mud,  are  never  colored  by  vegetable  ex- 
tractive or  soluble  matter  alone. 

If  we  go  farther  for  examples,  the  effects  will  be  found  to  be  still  more 
striking.  None  of  the  lime-stone  streams  are  ever  colored;  and  their  re- 
markable transparency,  very  far  surpassing  that  of  the  most  pure  and 
limpid  waters  of  the  low  country,  show  that  the  dissolved  lime,  which  the 
mountain. streams  contain,  serves  to  remove  every  thing  of  coloring  m 
These  lime-stone  waters,  and  land  floods  from  rains  which  also  necessarily 
carry  dissolved  carbonate  of  lime,  form  the  principal  supply  of  the  upper 
.lames  river.  But  long  before  the  waters  reach  the  head  of  tide,  not  a 
particle  of  lime  remains.  The  dissolved  lime  had  been  continually  uniting 
with  the  suspended  or  dissolved  vegetable  matter,  until  no  lime  was 
left,  and  the  precipitated  compound  had  served  to  add  more  manure  to  the 
extensive  low-grounds  along  the  whole  course  of  the  upper  James  river, 
and  which  are  so  well  known  and  deservedly  celebrated  for  their  great 
and  enduring  fertility  and  high  value. 

When  a  resident  of  the  lower  country  first  visits  our  mountain  and 
lime-stone  region,  he  cannot  avoid  observing  and  being  forcibly  impressed 
by  the  remarkable  clearness  of  the  waters.  Pools  and  basins  in  the 
streams  containing  six  feet  depth  of  water,  will  appear  to  his  unprac- 
tised eye  as  not  deeper  than  two  or  three  feet.  And  it  is  only  by  com- 
parison, and  by  becoming  acquainted  with  this  really  and  perfectly  clear 
lime-stone  water,  he  learns  that  he  had,  in  truth,  never  before  seen  a  stream 
or  pond  of  perfectly  clear  water.  Though  the  dissolved  matters  may  be 
in  too  small  quantity  to  produce  any  appearance  of  color,  they  serve  to 
impair  the  transparency  of  the  water.  And  when  any  such  coloring  or 
vegetable  matters  are  received  into  and  intermixed  with  lime-stone  streams, 
the  vegetable  matter  is  immediately  combined  with  lime,  and  the  compound 
precipitated  ;  still  leaving  in  the  water  a  great  excess  of  dissolved  lime, 
scarcely  diminished  by  the  loss  of  the  small  part  acting  to  clear  the  water 
of  all  coloring  and  vegetable  impregnation. 

From  the  large  proportion  of  lime  held  in  solution  by  lime-stone  springs, 
and  the  streams  proceeding  from  them,  and  also  by  rain  floods  passing 
over  lime-stone  soils,  it  must  be  inferred,  (according  to  my  views,)  that  such 
waters  must  very  quickly  combine  with  and  precipitate  all  coloring  matters, 
and,  when  not  turbid  with  earthy  matter,  be  as  transparent  as  water  can 
possibly  be.  Hence,  the  well  known  and  remarkable  transparency  of  such 
water  is  not  directly  caused  (as  commonly  understood)  by  lime  be- 
ing contained  in  them — but  because  of  the  other  adTrTterations  being 
totally  removed  in  combination  with  a  part  of  that  dissolved  lime.  Thus, 
the  water  is  not  in  the  least  made  crystalline  and  transparent  because  of 
what  it  contains,  but  because  of  what  it  has  been  deprived  of.  And,  there- 
fore, even  after  all  the  lime  may  have  been  precipitated,  the  water  must 
retain  its  previous  perfect  transparency,  unless  subsequently  impregnated 
with  other  coloring  matter. 

The  additional  supply  of  carbonic  acid  to  water,  which  alone  gives  to  it 
the  power  to  dissolve  or  to  retain  in  solution  even  the  smallest  proportion  of 
carbonate  of  lime,  is  not  strongly  held.  It  is  given  off  by  the  lime-stone 
water  in  its  partial  evaporation,  and  to  every  contact  of  atmospheric  air ; 
and  this  operation  is  increased  by  such  agitation  of  the  water  as  exposes 
a  larger  surface  to  the  air.  Hence,  at  all  rapids  of  lime-stone  streams, 
there  is  a  peculiarly  rapid  and  large  deposition  of  carbonate  of  lime,  let 
loose  by  the  water  because  of  the  loss  of  the  proportion  of  carbonic  acid 
which  before  served  to  hold  the  lime  dissolved  in  the  water.  This  pre- 
cipitation and  gradual  accumulation  of  carbonate  of  lime,  at  the  rapids  and 


178 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX 


cascades  of  streams,  is  the  formation  called  calcareous  tufa  or  travertine, 
and  vulgarly  called  "marl"  in  our  mountain  region,  and  which  is  presented 
in  great  quantity,  and'  sometimes  in  enormous  masses. 

As  lime-stone  water  so  easily  parts  with  the  carbonic  acid  which  enables 
it  to  hold  lime  in  solution,  it  can  scarcely  be  supposed  that  any  ofthe  acid 
remains  after  the  water  collects  and  remains  long  in  the  great  reservoirs 
formed  in  lakes.  But  whether  the  water  remains  impregnated  with  car- 
bonic acid,  and  of  course  with  lime,  or  has  lost  both,  the  effect  is  the  same, 
and  is  exhibited  most  strongly  in  the  remarkable  transparency  of  lakes 
so  formed.  Of  such,  I  have  never  myself  witnessed  any  but  of  Lake  George, 
in  New  York.  And  after  the  long  lapse  of  time  since  my  short  visit  to 
this  lake,  I  cannot  remember  to  what  extent  the  transparency  of  its  waters 
was  asserted,  or  what  my  own  personal  observation  ascertained.  I  only  re- 
member certainly  that  the  depth  of  water  through  which  very  small  objects 
were  distinctly  visible  was  very  great,  and  that  no  ground  was  left  to  doubt 
what  is  generally  asserted  and  received  as  true  on  that  head. 

To  return  to  the  lands  and  waters  of  Prince  George  county.  The 
water  left  by  heavy  rains,  standing  in  shallow  pools  on  the  high  level  wood- 
land, and  flowing  off  in  temporary  rivulets,  is  seen  to  be  colored  by  vegeta- 
ble matter  even  within  a  mile  of  James  river,  just  as  it  is  found  on  the  other 
lands  sloping  towards  the  Blackwater.  But  in  either  and  every  known  case 
of  such  discoloration  being  caused,  it  is  on  poor  and  acid  land.  No  such 
effect  takes  place  on  calcareous  or  even  neutral  soil,  no  matter  how  abun- 
dantly it  is  provided  with  dead  leaves  or  other  vegetable  matter.  There- 
fore it  is  manifest  that  it  is  not  difference  of  locality,  but  difference  of  soil, 
which  causes  the  different  effects  of  the  surplus  rain  water  becoming 
tinged,  and  remaining  tinged  with  vegetable  extract,  or  otherwise  remain- 
ing colorless.  And  also,  after  the  water  has  been  so  tinged,  that  it  depends 
on  the  difference  of  chemical  composition  in  the  soils  over  which  it  passes,  or 
of  the  streams  into  which  it  is  discharged,  whether  the  color  remains  or  is 
quickly  discharged.  And,  as  already  stated,  this  difference  of  action  and  effect 
depends  on  the  absence  or  presence  of  lime  in  the  soils  or  waters  to  which 
the  colored  excess  of  rain  water  flows. 

It  is  only  in  the  surplus  quantity  of  rain  water,  or  that  which  is  more 
than  the  soil  can  absorb,  that  this  coloring  matter  is  seen.  But  it  is  not  the 
less  certain  that  all  of  the  much  greater  quantity  of  water  from  more  gentle 
and  more  frequent  rains  which  soak  into  the  earth,  must  also  be  more  or 
less  tinged  with  the  coloring  matter  of  the  leaves  and  other  dead  vegeta- 
ble matter  through  which  the  water  passes,  and  must  take  up  in  passing  all 
that  is  then  easily  soluble,  and  not  chemically  combined  with  some  other 
body.  Thus,  every  gentle  and  soaking  rain  probably  carries  into  the  soil 
the  greater  part  of  all  the  then  soluble  vegetable  matter,  and  that  only 
which  is  soluble  is  all  that  is  then  completely  ready  to  act  as  food  for  plants. 
The  same  rain,  and  the  subsequent  chemical  action  of  air  and  warmth, 
cause  the  decomposition  of  the  before  insoluble  vegetable  matter  to  recom- 
mence, and  in  a  few  days  there  is  a  renewed  supply  of  soluble  or  extractive 
matter  formed  in  the  vegetable  cover  of  the  soil,  ready  to  be  dissolved  and 
to  be  carried  into  the  earth  by  the  next  succeeding  rain. 

Such  is  Nature's  process  of  furnishing  alimentary  manure,  or  the  food  of 
plants,  to  soils.  And  the  source  of  supply  is  unlimited  ;  for  it  is  principally 
from  the  atmosphere  and  water,  and  by  fixing  their  elements,  (oxygen,  ni- 
trogen, hydrogen  and  carbon,)  that  the  vegetable  growths  of  soils,  and  con- 
sequently all  alimentary  manures,  are  formed. 

As  enormous  then  as  is  the  continual  waste  of  vegetable  extractive  mat- 
ter and  manure  that  is  caused  by  every  heavy  rain,  and   which  is  always 


I    LL<    Wu:OUS  MANURES— APPENDIX.  ]  79 

in  the  black  waters  of  so  many  ponds  and  streams,  all 
this  lost  fertilizing  matter  must  be  in  very  small  proportion,  compared  to 
the  greater  Quantity  that  is  carried  more  gradually  and  frequently  into 
the  earth.  Much  the  greater  part  of  the  wood-land  of  lower  Virginia  is 
most  freely  and  abundantly  thus  supplied,  not  only  because  of  the  abun- 
dant 1  ented  in  a  thick  layer  of  fallen  leaves,  the  growth  of 
many  successive  years,  but  also  beoause  of  the  very  level  surface  of  the 
land,  which  obstructs  the  Bowing  off  of  the  surplus  rain  water,  and  thi 
neral  sandy  and  open  texture  of  the  soil  and  sub-soil,  which  operate  to 
absorb  quickly  the  water  and  its  dissolved  vegetable1  matter.  Yet  it  is 
iliy  these  lands  that  show  the  least  remaining  and  abiding  store 
of  this  supply  of  vegetable  manure.  The  soil,  or  all  of  the  upper  part 
which  shows  any  color  from  containing  vegetable  matter,  is  usually  not 
more  than  two  inches  thick  on  sandy  soils,  and  still  less  on  the  stifTest;  and 
all  the  portion  below,  (though  necessarily  manured  by  being  often  soaked 
to  a  foot  or  more  with  rain-water  conveying  all  its  dissolved  vegetable  ex- 
tract,) is  entirely  barren  and  worthless.  Such  results  would  be  as  inex- 
plicable as  they  are  wonderful,  but  for  the  reasons  afforded  by  the  doctrine 
of  the  combining  and  fixing  powers  of  carbonate  of  lime  and  vegetable 
salts  of  lime  ;  the  absence  of  which  ingredients  is  the  sole  defect  in  these 
cases,  and  which,  when  present  in  soils,  show  results  of  fertilization  altoge- 
ther the  reverse  of  these.  Where  lime  is  present  in  sufficient  quantity,  no 
coloring  or  manuring  matter  is  lost  to  the  soil  in  the  flowing  off  of  surplus 
water,  nor  in  the  wasteful  and  profitless  decomposition  of  the  greater 
quantity  of  coloring  and  alimentary  matter  soaked  into  the  earth. 

My  observation  was  not  attracted  to  the  cause  of  the  existence  of  black 
waters,  and  this  application  of  the  facts,  until  nearly  the  close  of  my  resi- 
dence in  the  country,  and  of  my  opportunities  for  personal  and  accurate 
observation.  And  1  am  well  aware,  and  ready  to  admit,  that  previous  ob- 
servations, made  by  mere  chance  and  without  object,  are  worth  very  little 
comparatively.  I  therefore  would  be  glad  to  ha\e  the  attention  of  other  ob- 
sei  Mas  drawn  to  this  point,  and  any  facts  to  be  elicited  that  will  either  confirm 
or  disprove  my  positions.  From  inquiries  made  of  persons  who  have  had 
ample  opportunity  to  observe  what  waters  were  cither  permanently  black 
or  without  tinge  of  such  vegetable  stain,  I  have  heard  the  following  general 
statements  of  facts,  on  which  my  comments  will  be  offered  as  the  facts  are 
presented. 

Streams  and  ponds  of  black  waters  are  rarely  seen  above  the  falls  of 
the  rivers;  and  are  believed  to  be  very  rarely  found  even  twenty  to 
thirty  miles  above.  They  are  never  seen  in  the  still  higher  lime-stone 
a.  If  this  opinion  be  correct,  then  these  waters  are  confined  exclusively 
(as  they  certainly  are  mainly)  to  the  region  of  soil  of  the  most  dad  quality. 
At  the  distance  above  the  (alls  where  black  waters  are  never  found,  the 
high  land  was  naturally  in  general  of  good  quality,  and  the  bottom  or 
alluvial  lands,  on  small  streams,  invariably  of  good  soil.  Of  course  these 
qualities  indicate  more  of  lime  in  the  soil ;  and,  according  to  my  views,  also 
the  inability  of  water  to  become  black,  or  at  least  to  remain  colored.* 

The  waters  of  1  Slack  water  river  and  its  tributary  streams  and  swamps 
become  darker  in  autumn,  owing  to  the  low  level  of  the  surface  at  that  sea- 
son. This  is  according  to  sound  reason;  as  evaporation  of  the  solvent  fluid 
necessarily  increases  the  strength  of  the  solution.      But  this  cause  is  held 

(tract  translated  from  M.  Puvis'  •  Ettaintr  la  Marne,'  ami  introduced  .a  pa,. 

150  of  this  pssay,  affords  testimony  that  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  existence  and  localities 

of  black  waters  in  France  accord  strictly  with  the  views  presented  in  this  article.     He 

ihere    that,  "during  the  month   of  August,  the  water  of  the  ponds  on  calcareous 

soil  does  not  become  II  1   happens  in  silicious  ponds." 


]Q0  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX 

by  most  persons  as  secondary  in  force  to  another,  viz:  the  dropping  of  the 
leaves,  and  especially  of  the  numerous  black-gum  trees,  and  their  berries, 
at  that  season,  on  the  swamps  and  in  the  streams.  Of  course  such  is  the 
source  of  the  coloring  matter ;  but  it  would  produce  no  notable  or  abiding 
effect,  but  for  the  want  of  lime  both  in  the  soil  and  in  the  water.  The  ex- 
tensive tide  swamps  on  the  creeks  of  James  river,  are  covered  with  a  dense 
growth  of  trees,  of  which  a  large  proportion  are  black-gums.  Yet  in  the 
numerous  rills  trickling  or  oozing  out  of  these  soils,  after  some  days  of 
low  tides,  I  have  never  observed  the  water  to  be  dark,  or  in  the  least  dis- 
colored. Yet  the  soil  of  these  tide  swamps  is  as  much  of  vegetable  forma- 
tion as  any  capable  of  bearing  trees,  and  is  believed  to  be  more  so  than  the 
swamp  lands  of  Blackwater  river  and  its  tributaries.  Therefore  it  is  not 
the  abundance  of  dead  vegetable  matter  in  a  soil,  nor  the  quantity  or  kind 
of  leaves  furnished  by  the  trees  growing  on  it,  which  alone  or  together 
produce  colored  waters.  The  earthy  portion  of  the  soil  of  these  tide 
marshes  and  swamps,  small  as  is  its  amount,  is  not  acid,  but  neutral,  and 
the  lime  contained  serves  to  prevent  the  water  remaining  discolored. 

Yet  this  is  not  always  the  case  on  tide  swamps.  The  waters  of  Poco- 
moke  river,  flowing  into  the  Chesapeake,  are  black,  which  I  presume  is 
owing  to  the  deficiency  of  lime  in  the  water  and  in  the  surface  soil  of  the 
lands  from  which  the  waters  flow. 

The  great  Dismal  Swamp  of  Virginia  and  its  lake,  and  the  still  more  ex- 
tensive swamps  and  lakes  of  North  Carolina,  all  present  black  waters,  and 
which  may  all  be  accounted  for  by  the  reasons  here  given. 

Neither  is  it  necessary  that  marl  beds  should  be  wanting  to  produce  the 
effect  of  black  waters.  It  is  only  necessary  that  the  marl  (no  matter  how 
abundant)  should  be  so  far  below  the  surface  as  not  to  affect  the  overflow- 
ing waters,  and  that  the  soil  of  the  higher  lands  should  be  generally  of  acid 
quality.  Such  are  the  lands  on  Blackwater  river  and  its  tributaries.  And 
though  marl  was  scarcely  known  any  where  there  twenty  years  ago,  it  is 
now  known  to  be  abundant,  and  generally  to  be  found,  though  almost  al- 
ways a  few  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  low  lands. 

Many  persons  who  would  concur  with  me  as  to  the  premises  and  results, 
would  yet  ascribe  the  coloring  of  certain  waters  to  the  more  level  surface  of 
the  land,  and  the  more  sluggish  and  stagnant  state  of  the  waters ;  and  would 
suppose  the  absence  of  coloring  matter  in  the  waters  of  the  upper  country  to 
be  caused  by  the  rapidity  of  the  descent  and  of  the  passage  of  the  streams. 
This  would  be  a  correct  view,  if  the  matter  in  question  were  the  degree  of 
inte?isity  of  color,  instead  of  the  existence  or  entire  absence  of  color.  It  is 
true,  and  obvious,  that  if  the  colored  waters  which  now  creep  and  stagnate 
over  the  level  lands  below  the  falls,  had  as  rapid  a  descent  and  free  discharge 
as  the  mountain  torrents,  their  color  could  not  be  made  deeper  by  the  long 
infusion  of  the  leaves,  nor  by  evaporation  of  still  waters.  But  though  the  color 
would  be  much  more  pale,  its  existence  would  not  be  the  less  certain.  The 
source  of  coloring  matter,  the  soaking  of  dead  leaves,  &c,  in  rain  water,  is  as 
abundant  in  the  upper  as  in  the  lower  country;  and  the  more  rapid  discharge 
of  the  waters,  if  no  other  cause  of  clearing  them  operated,  would  not  pre- 
vent their  becoming  and  remaining  colored,  as  generally,  and,  however  more 
pale  in  tint,  would  be  seen  as  obviously,  as  in  the  most  level  lands.  But  this 
is  not  all.  Though  there  is  almost  no  level  land,  and  therefore  no  swamps 
in  the  hilly  or  still  less  in  the  mountain  region,  there  are  mill-ponds  in  the 
lower  hilly  country,  and  natural  lakes  in  the  mountain  region.  If  there 
was  the  slightest  tint  of  dissolved  coloring  matter  in  the  streams,  the  wa- 
ters when  collected  in  these  deep  reservoirs  could  not  fail  to  exhibit  the  color 
much  more  deeply.  Yet  no  one  such  fact  is  known,  or  is  believed  to  have 
existence. 


CAM  AM. ol  9  MANURES— APPENDIX.  Jg] 

NOTE  III.—  Mention  oj  the  subject  of  page  68. 

THE  STATEMENTS  OF  BRITISH  AUTHORS  ON  M  Mil.,   ASM    I  HEIR   APPLICATION  OF  THE 
NAME,  GENERALLY  [»  OHREI  l   AMD  CONTRADICTORY. 

1  ustoni  compels  mc  to  apply  improperly  the  name  marl  to  our  depo«>'£* 
of  fossil  shells.  But  as  I  have  defined  the  manuring  by  this  substance,  which 
is  called  martini;,  to  be  simply  making  a  sou  oolcareous,  or  more  so  than  it 
was  before,  any  term  used  for  that  operation  would  serve,  if  its  meaning 
was  always  kept  in  view.  But  this  term,  unfortunately,  is  of  old  and  fre- 
quent use  in  English  books,  with  very  different  meanings.  The  existence 
of  these  differences  and  errors  has  been  generally  stated  in  the  foregoing 
pages  of  this  essay,  and  I  shall  here  present  the  proofs.  The  following 
quotations  will  show  that  the  term  marl  is  frequently  applied  in  Britain  to 
clays  containing  no  known  or  certain  proportion  of  calcareous  earth — that 
when  calcareous  earth  is  known  to  be  contained,  it  is  seldom  relied  on  as 
the  most  valuable  part  of  the  manure'— and  that  in  many  cases  the  reader 
is  lift  in  doubt  whether  the  manure  lias  served  to  increase,  or  diminish,  or 
has  not  altered  materially  the  amount  of  the  previous  calcareous  contents 
of  the  soil. 

The  passages  quoted  will  exhibit  so  fully  the  striking  contradictions  and 
ignorance  generally  prevailing*  as  to  the  nature  and  operation  of  marl,  that 
it  will  scarcely  be  necessary  for  mc  to  express  dissent  in  every  case,  or  to 
point  out  the  errors  or  uncertainty  of  facts,  or  of  reasoning,  which  will  ap- 
pear so  manifestly  and  abundantly. 

1.  Kir  wan,  on  the  authority  of  Arthur  Young  and  the  Bath  Memoirs, 
[1783,]  states  that, 

•'  In  some  parts  of  England,  where  husbandry  is  successfully  practiced,  any  loose  clay  it 
called  marl  :  in  others,  mail  is  called  chalk,  and  in  others,  clay  ii  called  loam." — Kinuan 
on  Manures,  p  I. 

2.  The  learned  and  practical  Miller  tlms  defines  and  describes  marl,  in 
the  ttridgment  o/  the  Gardener's  Dictionary,  fifth  London  edition,  at  the 
article  marl : 

"  Marl  is  a  kind  of  clay  which  is  become  fatter  ami  of  a  more  enriching  quality,  by  a 
better  fermentation,  and  by  its  bavins  lain  so  deep  in  the  earlh  as  no)  to  have  spent  or 
weakened  its  fertilizing  quality  by  any  product.  Marls  are  of  diAeient  qualities  in  dif- 
ferent counties  of  England." 

He  then  names  and  describes  ten  varieties,  most  of  them  being  very  mi- 
nutely and  particularly  characterized — and  in  only  two  of  the  ten  is  there 
any  allusion  to  a  calcareous  ingredient,  and  in  these,  it  is  evidently  not 
deemed  to  constitute  their  value  as  manures.  These  are  "the  cowshut 
marl"  of  Cheshire,  which — 

"  Is  of  a  brownish  color,  with  blue  veins  in  it,  and  little  lumps  of  chalk  or  limestone," — 
and  "  clay-marl ;  this  resembles  clay,  and  is  pretty  near  akin  to  it,  but  is  faUer,  and  some- 
times mixed  with  chalk  stones. 

•'  The  properties  of  any  sorts  of  marls,  by  which  tbe  goodness  of  them  may  be  best 
known,  are  better  judged  of  by  their  purity  and  onrompoundedness,  than  their  color  si 
if  it  will  break  in  pieces  like  dice,  or  into  thin  Bakes,  or  is  smooth  like  lead  ore,  and  is 
without  a  mixture  of  gravel  or  sand;  if  it  will  ^lake   like  I  shatter  alter 

wet,  or  will  tumble  into  dust,  when  it  has  been  exposed  to  the  sun  ;  or  will  not  bang  and 
stick  together  when  it  is  thoroughly  dry.  like  ton^h  clay  :  but  is  fat  and  lender,  and  will 
open  the  land  it  is  laid  on,  and  not  bind  :  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  it  will  be  be- 
neficial to  it." 

3.  Johnson's  Dictionary  (octavo  edition)  defines  marl  in  precisely  the 
words  of  the  first  sentence  of  Miller,  ns  quoted  above. 

23 


182  CALCAREOu 

4.  Walker's  Dictionary  (octavo  edu  *ini- 
tion — "  Marl — a  kind  of  clay  much  used  . 

5.  A  Practical  Treatise  on  Husbandry,  (2tl 
which  professes  to  be  principally  compiled  from 
Evelyn,  Home,  and  Miller,  supplies  the  following  quo. 

"  But  of  all  the  manures  for  sandy  soils,  none  is  so  good  as  man.     I 
different  kinds  and  colors  of  it,  severally  distinguished  by  many  writers 
tue  is  the  same  ;  they  may  be  all  used  upon  the  same  ground,  without  tht 
ference  in  their  effect.     The  color  is  either  red,  brown,  yellow,  gray,  or  inixe<.. 
be  known  by  its  pure  and  uncompounded  nature.     There  are  many  marks  to  disdi.j'i. 
it  by  ;  such  as   its  breaking  into  little  square  bits  ;  its  falling  easily  into   pieces,  by  II 
force  of  a  blow,  or  upon  being  exposed  to  the  sun  and  the  frost ;  its  feeling  fat  and  oily, 
and  shining  when  'tis  dry.     But  the  most  unerring  way  to  judge  of  marl,  and  know  it  from 
any  other  substance,  is  to  break  a  piece  as  big  as  a  nutmeg,  and  when  it   is  quite  dry, 
drop  it  into  a  glass  of  clear  water,  where,  if  it  be  right,  it  will  dissolve  and  crumble,  as  it 
were,  to  dust,  in  a  little  time,  shooting  up  sparkles  to  the  surface  of  the  water." — p.  27. 

— Not  the  slightest  hint  is  here  of  any  calcareous  ingredient  being  neces- 
sary, or  even  serving  in  any  manner  to  distinguish  marl.  But  afterwards, 
in  another  part  of  this  work,  when  shell  marl  is  slightly  noticed,  it  is  said  : 

"  This  effervesces  strongly  with  all  acids,  which  is  perhaps  chiefly  owing  to  the  shells. 
There  are  very  good  marls  which  show  nothing  of  this  effervescence:  and  therefore  the 
author  of  the  New  System  of  Agriculture  judged  right  in  making  its  solution  in  water  the 
distinguishing  mark." — p.  29. 

The  last  sentence  declares,  as  clearly  as  any  words  could  do,  that,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  author,  no  calcareous  ingredient  is  necessary,  either  to 
constitute  the  character,  or  the  value  of  marl.  And  though  it  may  be  ga- 
thered from  other  parts  of  this  work,  that  what  is  called  marl  generally 
contains  calcareous  earth,  yet  no  importance  seems  attached  to  that  quality, 
any  more  than  to  the  particular  color  of  the  earth,  or  any  other  accidental 
or  immaterial  appearance  of  some  of  the  varieties  described. 

The  "shell  marl"  alluded  to  above,  without  explanation  might  be  sup- 
posed to  be  similar  to  our  beds  of  fossil  shells,  which  are  called  marl.  The 
two  manures  are  very  different  in  form,  appearance,  and  value,  though 
agreeing  in  both  being  calcareous.  The  manure  called  shell  marl  by  the 
work  last  quoted  from,  is  described  there  with  sufficient  precision,  and  more 
fully  in  several  parts  of  the  Edinburgh  Farmer's  Magazine,*  and  in  the  Me- 
moirs of  the  Philadelphia  Agricultural  Society.f  It  is  still  more  unlike 
marl,  properly  so  called,  than  any  of  the  substances  described  under  that 
name,  in  the  foregoing  quotations.  This  manure  is  almost  a  pure  calca- 
reous earth,  being  formed  of  the  remains  of  small  fresh-water  shells  de- 
posited on  what  were  once  the  bottoms  of  lakes,  but  which  have  since  be- 
come covered  with  bog  or  peat  soil.  If  I  may  judge  from  our  beds  of  mus- 
cle shells,  (to  which  this  manure  seems  to  bear  most  resemblance,)  much 
putrescent  animal  matter  is  combined  with,  and  serves  to  give  additional 
value  to  these  bodies  of  shells.  This  kind  of  manure  is  sold  in  Scotland 
by  the  bushel,  at  such  prices  as  show  that  it  is  very  highly  prized.  It 
seems  to  be  found  but  in  few  situations,  and  though  called  a  kind  of  marl, 
is  never  meant  when  that  term  alone  is  used  generally. 

A  much  older  work  than  either  of  these  referred  to  furnishes  in  part 
the  definitions  and  even  the  words  used  above.  This  is  the  'Systema  Ag- 
ricultural, the  Mystery  of  Husbandry  discovered,  published  in  1687;  and  the 
author  or  compiler  of  that  old  work  was  probably  indebted  to  others  still 
older  for  his  description  of  marl.     For  new  books  on  agriculture,  more 

*  See  Farmer's  Register,  vol.  i.,  p.  90. 
t  Vol.  iii.  p.  206. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX.  ]83 

especially,  have  been  mo-,i  generally  made  by  compiling  and  copying  from 
older  ones. 

"  Marie  is  a  very  excellent  thing,  commended  of  all  that  either  write  or  practise  any 
thing  in  husbandry.  There  are  several  kinds  of  it,  some  stony,  some  sojl,  while,  gray, 
russet,  yellow,  blew,  black,  and  some  ,ed  :  It  is  of  a  cold  nature  and  saddens  land  ex- 
ceedingly ;  nd  very  heavy  it  is,  and  will  go  downward,  though  not  so  much  as  lime 
doth.  The  goodness  or  badness  thereof  is  not  known  so  much  by  the  colour,  as  by  trie- 
purity  and  uncompoundness  of  it;  lor  if  it  will  break  into  bits  like  a  dye,  or  smooth 
like  lead-oar,  without  any  composition  of  sand  or  gravel ;  or  if  it  will  slake  like  slate- 
stones,  and  slake  or  shatter  alter  a  shower  ol  rain,  or  being  exposed  to  the  sun  or  air, 
and  shortly  after  turn  to  dust,  when  it's  thoroughly  dry  again,  ami  not  congeal  like  tough 
clay,  question  not  Ihe  fruillulness  of  it,  notwithstanding  the  difference  ol  colours,  which 
are  no  certain  signs  of  the  goodness  of  the  marie.  As  for  the  slipper  mess  viscousness, 
fattiness,  or  oyliness  thereof,  although  it  be  commonly  esteemed  a  sign  ol  good  mane, 
yet  the  best  authors  affirm  the  contrary- viz  :  that  there  is  very  good  mar/e  which  is 
not  so,  but  lielh  in  the  mine  pure,  dry  and  short,  yet  nevertheless  if  you  water  it  you 
will  Sod  it  slippery.  Hut  the  best  and  truest  rule  to  know  the  richness  and  profit  o 
your  mark,  to  to  try  a  load  or  two  on' your  lands,  in  several  places  and  in  dillerent 

^IheTusually  lay  the  same  on  the  small  heaps,  and  disperse  it  over  the  whole  field,  as 
they  do  their  dung  ;'and  this  mark  will  keep  the  land  whereon  it  is  laid  in  some  places 
ten  or  fifteen  and  in  some  places  thirty  yeais  in  heart  :  it  is  most  profitable  Iffli dry,  Igbt. 
and  barren  lands,  such  as  is  most  kind  and  natural  foi  rye,  as  is  evident  by  M.ffl "«  j 
experiment  in  his  chapter  of  marie.  It  also  adbrdeth  not  its  verlue  or  *,renS,1,1,ne,™t 
year,  so  much  as  in  the  subsequent  years.  It  yields  a  very  great  increase  and  advantage 
on  high,  sandy,  gravelly,  or  mixed  lands.  Though  never  so  barren,  strong  c  ay  ground 
is  unsuitable  to  it ;  yet  if  it  can  be  laid  dry,  marie  may  be  profitable  on  that  also. 

The  author  then  proceeds  to  direct  the  mode  of  application  more  parti- 
cularly ;  and  if  there  were  any  doubt  as  to  his  total  ignorance  (or  otherwise 
denial)  of  calcareous  earth  being  necessary  to  the  constitution  of  marl, 
that  doubt  would  be  removed  by  a  subsequent  sentence. 

"You  shall  observe,  (saith  Markham,)  lhat  if  you  cannot  get  dry.  P8**^^1*^ 
inarle  if  then  you  can  get  of  that  earth  which  is  call-,;  iuller's  earth,  (and  where  Ihe 
one  is  not.  commonly  the  other  is,)  then  you  may  use  it  in  the  same  manner  as  you 
should  do  marie,  and  it  is  found  to  be  very  near  as  profitable. 

Evelyn's  Terra,  or  Philosophical  Discourse  of  Earths,  4>c,  delivered  be- 
fore the  Royal  Society  in  1675,  has  the  following  passage : 

"Of  marie  (of  a  cold  sad  nature,  a  substance  belween  clay  and  chalk,)  seldom  have 
we  such  quantities  in  layers  as  we  have  of  forementioned  earth  ;  hut  we  commonly 
meet  with  it  in  places  affected  to  it,  and  'tis  taken  out  ol  pits,  at  dilterent  depths,  and  of 
divers  colours,  red,  white,  gray,  blue,  all  of  them  unctuous,  and  of  a  slippery  nature, 
and  differing  in  goodness  ;  for  being  pure  and  immixt.  it  sooner  relents  alter  a  shower, 
and  when  dryed  again,  slackens,  and  crumbles  into  dust,  without  induration,  and  grow- 
in"  hard  again.  They  are  profitable  lor  barren  grounds,  as  abounding  in  nitre;  and 
sometimes  There  has  been  found  in  murle,  dclfs,  a  v.lriohc  wood,  which  will  kindle  like 


coal." 


The  opinions  expressed  in  the  foregoing  extracts,  prove  sufficiently  that 
it  was  not  the  ignorant  cultivators  only,  who  either  did  not  know  of,  or  at- 
tached no  importance  to  the  calcareous  ingredient  in  marl ;  and  it  was  im- 
possible that,  from  any  number  of  such  authors,  an  American  reader  could 
learn  that  either  the  object  or  the  effect  of  marUng  was  to  render  a  soil 
more  calcareous— or  that  our  bodies  of  fossil  shells  resembled  marl  in  cha- 
racter, or  in  operation  as  a  manure.  Of  this,  the  following  quotation  will 
furnish  striking  proof— and  the  more  so  as  the  author  refers  frequently  to 
the  works  of  Anderson,  and  of  Young,  who  treated  of  marl  and  of  calca- 
reous manures,  in  a  more  scientific  manner  than  had  been  usual.  This 
author  Bordley,  cannot  be  justly  charged  with  inattention  to  the  instruction 
to  be  gained  from  books;  for  his  greatest  fault,  as  an  agriculturist,  is  his 


184  CALCAri 

fondness  for  applying  the  prac 
England,  to  our  lands  and  situatio 
which  he  carried  to  an  extent  that  is 
ruinous  to  the  farmer  who  should  so  sha]v 

S.  "  I  farmed  in  a  country  [the  Eastern  Shore  of  Ma. 
due  attention  to  manures  :  but  having  read  of  the  applicati 
quired  where  there  was  any  in  the  peninsula  of  the  ChespeaK 
had  a  grayish  clay  which  to   the  eye  was  marl :  but   because  it 
acids,  it  was  given  Qp  when  it  ought  to  have  been  tried  on  the  lani... 
pidly  crumbled  and  fell  to  mud,  in  water,  with   some   appearance   of  . 
Bordley's  Husbundry,  2nd  ed.,  p.  55. 

That  peninsula,  through  which  Mr.  Bordley  in  vain  inquired  for  men, 
immense  quantities  of  the  fossil  shells  which  we  so  improperly  call  by  . 
name.  But  as  his  search  was  directed  to  marl  as  described  by  Englisi. 
authors— and  not  to  calcareous  earth  simply  — it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  he  should  neither  find  the  former  substance,  nor  attach  enough  impor- 
tance to  the  latter,  to  induce  the  slightest  remark  on  its  probable  use  as 
manure. 

9.  The  Practical  Treatise  on  Husbandry,  among  the  directions  for  im- 
proving clay  land,  has  what  follows: 

"Sea  sand  and  sea  shells  are  used  to  great  advantage  as  a  manure,  chiefly  for  cold  strong 
[i.  e.  clay]  land,  and  loam  inclining  to  clay.  They  separate  the  parts ;  and  the  salts 
which  are  contained  in  them  are  a  very  great  improvement  to  the  land.  Coral,  and  such 
kind  of  stony  plants  which  grow  on  the  rocks,  are  filled  with  salts,  which  are  very  bene- 
ficial to  land.  But  as  these  bodies  are  hard,  the  improvement  is  not  the  first  or  second 
year  after  they  are  laid  on  the  ground,  because  they  require  lime  to  pulverize  them, 
before  their  salts  can  mix  with  the  earth  to  impregnate  it.  The  consequence  of  this  is, 
that  their  manure  is  lasting.  Sand,  and  the  smaller  kind  of  sea  weeds,  will  enrich  land 
for  six  or  seven  years  :  and  shells,  coral,  and  other  hard  bodies,  will  continue  many  years 
longer. 

"  In  some  rountries/ojsii  shells  have  been  used  with  success  as  manure  ;  but  they  are 
not  near  so  lull  of  salts,  as  those  shells  which  aie  taken  from  the  sea  shore  ;  and  therefore 
the  latter  are  always  to  be  preferred  Sea  sand  is  much  used  as  manure  in  Cornwall. 
The  best  is  that  which  is  intimately  mixed  with  coral." — p.  21. 

After  stating  the  manner  in  which  this  "excellent  manure"  is  taken  up  from 
the  bottom,  in  barges,  its  character  is  thus  continued  : 

"  It  [i.  e.  the  sea  sand  mixed  with  coral,  as  it  may  happen,]  gives  the  heat  of  lime,  and 
the  fatness  of  oil,  to  the  land  it  is  laid  upon.  Being  more  solid  than  shells,  it  conveys  a 
greater  quantity  of  fermenting  earth  in  equal  space.  Besides,  it  does  not  dissolve  in  the 
ground  ss  soon  as  shells,  but  decaying  more  gradually,  continues  longer  to  impart  its 
warmth  to  the  juices  of  the  earth." 

^lere  are  described  manures  which  are  known  to  be  calcareous,  which 
are  strongly  recommended—  but  solely  for  their  supposed  mechanical  effect 
in  separating  the  parts  of  close  clays,  and  on  account  of  the  salts  derived 
from  sea  water,  which  they  contain.  Indeed,  no  allusion  is  made  to  any 
suppased  value,  or  even  to  the  presence  of  calcareous  earth,  which  forms 
so  large  a  proportion  of  these  manures  :  and  the  fossil  shells,  (in  which  that 
ingredient  is  more  abundant,  more  finely  reduced,  and  consequently  more 
fit  for  both  immediate  and  durable  effects,)  are  considered  as  less  efficacious 
than  solid  sea  shells— and  inferior  to  sea  sand.  All  these  substances,  be- 
sides whatever  service  their  salts  may  render,  are  precisely  the  same  kind 
of  calcareous  manure,  as  our  beds  of  fossil  shells  furnish  in  a  different 
form.  Yet  neither  here  nor  elsewhere,  does  the  author  intimate  that  these 
manures  and  marl  have  similar  powers  for  improving  soils. 

The  foregoing  quotations  show  what  opinions  have  been  expressed  by 
English   writers  of  reputation— and  what  opinion  would  he  formed   by  a 


.i'.NMV  |Sf, 

taral  works,  of  the  nature  ol  what 
what  is  so  named  in  this  part  of  our 
•r  authors  have  not  thought  more  cor- 
J  themselves  with  precision  on  this  subject. 
10  be  a  calcareous  clay"— and  in  this  correct 
by  Davy,  and  other  chemical  agriculturists.     Such 
and  Sinclair  also  could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  the 
,  of  marl— yet  even  they  have  used  so  little  precision  or 
rhen  speaking  oi  the  effects  of  marling,  that  their  statements, 
.  correct  they  may  be  in  the  sense  they  intended  them,)  convey  no 
.1  information,  and  have  not  served  to  remove  the  erroneous  impres- 
inns  made  by  the  great  body  of  their  predecessors.     Knowing  as  Young 
did  [see  first  quotation]  the  confusion  in  which  this  subject  was  involved, 
it  was  the  more  incumbent  on  him  to  be  guarded  in  his  use  of  terms  so 
generally  misapplied.     Vet  BOnsidering  his  practical  and  scientific  know- 
is  an  agriculturist,  his  extensive  personal  observations,  and  the  quan- 
tity of  matter  he  has  published  on  soils  and  calcareous  manures,  his  omis- 
sions are  more  remarkable  than  those  of  any  other  writer.     In  such  of  his 
works  as  1  have  met  with,  though  full  of  strong  recommendations  of  marl- 
ing, in  no  case  does  he  state  the  composition  of  the  soil,  (as  respects  its 
calcareous  ingredient,)  or  the  proportion  added  by  the  operation— and  ge- 
nerally notices  neither,  as  if  he  viewed  marling  just  as  most  others  have 
done.     These   charges  are   supported  by  the   following  extracts  and  re- 
ferences. 

10.  Young's  Farmer's  Calendar,  10th  London  edition,  page  40. — On 
marling.  Through  nearly  four  pages  this  practice  is  strongly  recommended 
— but  the  manures  spoken  of,  are  regularly  called  "  marl  or  clay,"  and 
their  application,  ••marling  or  claying."  Mr.  Rodwell's  account  of  his 
practice  is  inserted  at  length.  On  leased  land  he  "  clayed  or  marled"  eight 
hundred  and  twenty  acres  with  one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  loads,  and 
at  a  cost  of  four  thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifty-eight  pounds— and  the 
business  is  stated  to  have  been  attended  with  great  profit.  At  last,  the 
author  lets  us  know  that  it  is  not  the  same  substance  that  he  has  been 
calling  "  marl  or  clay"— and  that  tha_marl  effervesces  strongly  with  acids, 
and  the  clay  slightly.  But  wa^e^old  nothing  more  precise  as  to  the 
amount  of  calcareous  ingredieftW  either  in  the  manures,  or  the  soil — and 
even  if  we  were  informedon  those  heads,  (without  which  we  can  know  little 
or  nothing  of  what  the  operation  really  is,)  we  are  left  ignorant  of  how 
much  was  clayed,  and  how  much  marled.  It  is  to  be  inferred,  however, 
that  the  clay  was  thought  most  serviceable,  as  Mr.  Rodwell  says— 

"  Clay  is  much  to  be  preferred  to  marl  on  those  sandy  soils,  soint  of  which  are   loose, 
poor,  and  even  a  black  sand." 

11.  young's  Survey  of  Norfolk,  (a  large  and  closely  printed  octavo  vo- 
lume,) has  fourteen  pages  filled  with  a  minute  description  of  the  soils  of 
that  county-  but  without  any  indication  whatever  of  the  proportion,  pre- 
sence, or  absence,  of  calcareous  earth  in  that  extensive  district  of  sandy 
soils,  so  celebrated  for  their  improvement  by  marling— nor  in  any  other 
part  of  the  county.     The  wastes  are  very  extensive :  one  of  them  (page 

eighteen  miles  across,  quite  a  desert  of  sand,  "yet  highly  improveable." 
Of  this  also,  no  information  is  given  as  to  it*  calcareous  constitution. 

12.  The  section  on  marl  (page  402,  of  the  same  work)  gives  concise 
statements  of  its  application,  with  general  notices  of  its  effects,  on  near 

•  Cleaveland's  Mineralogy. 


186  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 

fifty  different  parishes,  neighborhoods,  or  separate  farms.  Among  all  these, 
the  only  statements  from  which  the  calcareous  nature  of  the  manure  may 
be  gathered,  are,  (page  406,)  of  a  marl  that  "ferments  strongly  with  acids" 
— another,  (page  409,)  that  marling  at  a  particular  place  destroys  sorrel  — 
and  (page  410)  that  the  marl  is  generally  calcareous,  and  that  that  contain- 
ing the  most  clay,  and  the  least  calcareous  earth,  is  preferred  by  most  per- 
sons, but  not  by  all. 

13.  Young's  General  View  of  the  Agriculture  of  Suffolk,  (an  octavo  of  432 
pages  of  close  print,)  in  the  description  of  soils,  affords  no  information 
as  to  any  of  them  being  calcareous,  or  otherwise ;  yet  the  author  mentions 
(page  3)  having  analyzed  some  of  the  soils,  and  reports  their  aluminous 
and  silicious  ingredients.  Nor  can  more  be  learned  in  this  respect,  in  the 
long  account  afterwards  given  of  the  "  marl"  which  has  been  very  exten- 
sively applied  also  in  the  county  of  Suffolk.  We  may  gather  however, 
from  the  following  extracts,  that  the  "marl  or  clay"  of  Suffolk  is  generally 
calcareous,  but  that  this  quality  is  not  considered  the  principal  cause  of  its 
value ;  and  further,  that  crag,  a  much  richer  calcareous  manure,  (which 
seems  to  be  the  same  with  our  richest  beds  of  fossil  shells,  or  marl,)  is 
held  to  be  injurious  to  the  sandy  soils,  which  are  so  generally  improved  by 
what  is  there  called  marl. 

"  Claying — a  term  in  Suffolk,  which  includes  marling  ;  and  indeed  the  earth  car- 
ried under  this  term  is  very  generally  a  clay  marl  ;  though  a  pure,  or  nearly  a  pure  clay, 
is  preferred  for  very  loose  sands." — Young's  Suffolk,  p.  1S6. 

14.  After  speaking  of  the  great  value  of  this  manure  on  light  lands,  he 
adds 

"  Bui  when  the  clay  is  not  of  a  good  sort,  that  is,  when  there  is  really  none,  or  scarcely 
any  clay  in  it,  but  is  an  imperfect  and  even  a  hard  chalk,  there  are  great  doubts  how  far 
it  answers  and  in  some  cases  has  been  spread  to  little  profit." — p.  187. 

15.  •'  Part  of  the  under  stratum  of  the  county  is  a  singular  body  of  cockle  and  other 
shells,  found  in  great  masses  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  from  Dunwich  quite  to  the 
river  Orwell,  &c." — "  I  have  seen  pits  of  it  to  the  depth  of  fifteen  or  twenty  feet,  from 
which  great  quantities  had  been  taken  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  heaths.  It  is 
both  red  and  white,  and  the  shells  so  broken  as  to  resemble  sand.  On  lands  long  in 
tillage,  the  use  is  discontinued,  as  it  is  found  to  Blake  the  sands  blow  more."  [That  is,  to  be 
moved  by  the  winds.] — p.  5.  ^^ 

1 5.  The  Essay  on  Manures,  by  ArthurToung,  for  which  the  author  was 
honored  with  the  Bedford  medal,  speaks  distinctly  enough  of  the  value  of 
marl  being  due  to  its  calcareous  ingredient,  (as  this  author  doubtless  always 
knew,  notwithstanding  the  looseness  of  most  of  his  remarks  on  this  head — ) 
but  at  the  same  time  he  furnishes  some  of  the  strongest  examples  of  absurd 
inferences,  or  of  gross  ignorance  of  the  mode  in  which  calcareous  earth 
acts  as  an  ingredient  of  soil,  and  the  proportion  which  soils  ought  to 
contain.     These  are  his  statements,  and  his  reasoning  thereon: 

"  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  discover,  from  the  knowledge  at  present  possessed  by  the 
public,  what  ought  to  be  the  quantity  of  calcareous  earth  in  a  soil.  The  best  specimen 
analyzed  by  Giobert  had  6  per  cent.  ;  by  Bergman,  30  per  cent.  ;  by  Dr.  Fordyce,  2  per 
cent.;  a  rich  soil,  quoted  by  Mr.  Davy,  in  his  lecture  at  the  Royal  Institution,  11  per 
cent.  This  is  an  inquiry,  concerning  which  I  have  made  many  experiments,  and  on  soils 
of  the  most  extraordinary  fertility.  In  one,  the  proportion  was  equal  to  9  percent.;  in 
another  20  per  cent.;  another,  3  per  cent. ;  and  in  a  specimen  of  famous  land,  which  I 
procured  from  Flanders,  17  per  cent.  But  the  circumstance  which  much  perplexes  the 
inquiry  is,  that  many  poor  soils  possess  the  same  or  nearly  the  same  proportions  as  there 
most  fer'iie  ones.  To  attain  the  truth,  in  so  important  a  point,  induced  me  to  repeat  many 
trials,  and  to  compare  every  circumstance  ;  and  I  am  disposed  to  conclude,  that  the  neces- 
sity of  there  being  a  large  proportion  of  calcareous  earth  in  a  soil  depends  on  the  deficiency 
of  organic  [i  e.  vegetable  or  animal]  matter  ;  of  that  organic    matter  which  is   [partly] 


CALCAREOUS   MANURES-APPENDIX  187 

convertible  into  hydrogen  gas  If  the  farmer  finds,  by  experiment,  that  his  soil  has  but  a 
email  quantity  of  organic  lEatter,  or  knows  by  his  practice  that  it  is  poor,  and  not  worth 
more  than  10s..  15*.  or  20s.  an  acre,  he  may  then  conclude  that  there  ought  to  be  20  per 
cent,  of  calcareous  earth  in  it  ;  but  if,  on  the  contrary,  it  abound  with  organic  matter  and 
be  worth  it  practice  a  much  larger  rent,  in  that  case  his  marl  cart  will  not  be  called  for, 
though  tbere  be  but  five  percent,  or  even  less,  of  calcareous  matter."—  Young's  Euay  on 
Manures  —  Sect.  2. 

U  is  scarcely  necessary  to  show,  that  the  opinion  of  calcareous  matter 
being  needed  in  larger  quantities  in  proportion  to  the  deficiency  of  pu- 
trescent matter,  is  directly  opposed  to  the  reasoning  of  this  essay.  If  a 
poor  soil  were  made  to  dontain  twenty  per  cent,  of  calcareous  matter,  by 
applying  lime,  chalk,  or  marl,  the  quantity  and  the  expense  would  be  so 
enormous  as  not  to  be  justified  by  any  possible  return,  and  in  truth,  would 
lessen  rather  than  increase  the  product  of  a  poor  soil.  The  fact  named 
as  strange  by  Young,  that  some  rich  soils  contain  very  small,  and  others 
very  large  proportions  of  calcareous  earth,  is  easily  explained.  If  a  natu- 
ral soil  contains  any  excess  of  calcareous  earth,  even  though  but  one  per 
cent.,  it  shows  that  there  is  that  much  to  spare  after  having  served  every  pur- 
pose of  neutralizing  acids  and  combining  with  putrescent  matter.  If  there 
were  twenty  per  cent,  more  of  calcareous  matter,  it  would  be  useless, 
until  met  by  an  additional  supply  of  putrescent  matter.  Young's  state- 
ment that  some  poor  soils  agree  precisely  with  other  rich  soils,  in  their 
contents  of  calcareous  earth,  does  not  necessarily  contradict  my  doctrine 
that  a  proper  proportion  of  calcareous  earth  will  enable  any  soil  to  become 
rich,  either  in  a  state  of  nature,  or  under  mild  cultivation,  and  for  the  fol- 
lowing reasons: 

16.  1st  The  correctness  of  Young's  analyses  may  be  well  doubted; 
and  if  he  used  the  then  usual  process  for  separating  calcareous  earth,  he 
was  obliged  to  be  incorrect  on  account  of  its  unavoidable  imperfection,  as 
has  been  already  explained  at  page  36.  2d.  It  cannot  be  known  positively 
what  was  the  original  state  of  fertility  of  most  cultivated  soils  in  England, 
nor  whether  they  were  subjected  to  exhausting  or  improving  cultivation, 
for  centuries  before  our  information  from  history  begins.  3d.  Lime  has 
been  there  used  for  a  long  time,  and  to  great  extent ;  and  chalk  and  marl 
were  applied  as  manures  during  the  time  of  the  Roman  conquest,  as  stated 
by  Pliny,  (say  1700  years  ago)  so  that  it  cannot  be  always  known  whether 
a  soil  has  received  its  calcareous  ingredient  from  nature,  or  the  industry 
of  man.  4th.  It  is  known  that  severe  cropping  after  liming,  and  also  ex- 
cessive doses  of  calcareous  earth,  have  rendered  land  almost  barren;  of 
which  the  following  extracts  offer  sufficient  proof: — 

"  Before  177S,  [in  East  Lothian,]  the  out-field  did  not  receive  any  dung  except  what  was 
left  by  the  animals  grazed  upon  it.  In  many  cases,  out-field  land  was  limed  ;  and  often 
with  singular  advantage.  The  after  management  was  uniformly  bad  ;  it  being  customary 
to  crop  the  limed  out-field  with  barley  and  oats  successively,  so  long  as  the  crop  was 
worth  cutting.  In  this  way  numerous  fields  suffered  so  severely  as  to  be  rendered  almost 
sterile  for  half  a  century  afterwards."     Farmer's  Magazine,  p.  53,  vol.  xii. 

"  An  overdose  of  shell  marl,  laid  perhaps  an  inch  thick,  produces  for  a  time  large 
crops.  But  at  last  it  renders  the  soil  a  caput  mortuum,  capable  of  neither  corn  nor 
grass ;  of  which,  there  are  too  many  examples  in  Scotland,  &c.  Gentleman  Far- 
mer, p.  378. 

1 7.  Yet  the  last  writer  (Lord  Karnes)  elsewhere  states,  (at  page  379,) 
that  as  much  clay  marl  as  contains  1500  bolls,  (or  9000  bushels,)  of  pure 
calcareous  earth  to  the  acre,  is  not  an  overdose  in  Scotland. 

18.  "Marl.  Of  this  substance,  there  are  four  sorts,  rock — slate — clay — and  shell 
marl.  The  three  former  are  of  so  heavy  a  nature  that  they  are  seldom  conveyed  to  any 
distance  ;  though  useful  when  found  befow  a  lighter  soil.     But  shell  marl  is  specifically 


J  gg  CALCARj. 

lighter,  and  consists  entirely  of  calcareous  «d 

shells  offish,)  which  may  be  applied  as  a  lop-^ 

be  less   advantageous  to   use  quick-lime."     [This  i 

extract  5,  and  there  more  particularly  described  ]     "  * 

or  red  marl,  is  the  great  source  of  fertilization,  Ssc."— "  1 1, 

in  many  cases  about  three  hundred  middling  cart  loads  per  aci. 

times  so  thickly  covered  as  to  have  the  appearance  of  a   red  soiled 

ed."—  Sinclair's  Code  of  Agriculture,  American  ed.  (Hartford)  p.  ViS. 

This  account  of  the  Lancashire  improvements  made  by  red  i . 
closes  with  the  statement  that  "the  effects  are  represented  to  be  benei 
in  the  highest  degree,"  which  is  fully  as  exact  an  account  of  profit,  or  in 
creased  production,  as  we  can  obtain  of  any  other  marling.  Throughout, 
there  is  no  hint  as  to  the  calcareous  constituents  of  the  soil  or  the  manure, 
or  whether  either  rock,  clay  or  slate  marls,  generally,  are  valuable  for  that 
or  for  other  reasons ;  nor  indeed  could  we  guess  that  they  contained  any 
calcareous  earth,  but  for  their  being  classed  with  many  other  substances, 
under  the  general  head  of  calcareous  manures. 

19.  "  The  means  of  ameliorating  the  texture  of  chalky  soils,  are  either  by  the  applica- 
tion of  clayey  and  sandy  loams,  pure  clay,  or  marl." — "The  chalk  stratum  sometimes 
lies  upon  a  thick  vein  of  black  tenacious  marl,  of  a  rich  quality,  which  ought  to  be  dug 
up  and  mixed  with  the  chalk." — Code  of  Agriculture,  p.  19. 

20.  Dickson's  Farmer's  Companion. — The  author  recommends  "  argil- 
laceous marl"  for  the  improvement  of  chalky  soils ;  and  for  sandy  soils, 
"  where  the  calcareous  principle  is  in  sufficient  abundance,  argillaceous 
marl,  and  clayey  loams,"  are  recommended  as  manures. 

21.  "  Chalky  loam.  The  best  manure  for  this  soil  is  clay,  or  argillaceous  marl,  if 
clay  cannot  be  had  ;  because  this  soil  is  defective  principally  in  the  argillaceous  ingredi- 
ent."— Kirwan  on  Manures,  p.  80. 

The  evident  intention  and  effect  of  the  marling  recommended  in  all  the 
three  last  extracts,  is  to  diminish  the  proportion  of  calcareous  earth  in  the 
soil. 

22.  In  a  Traveller's  Notes  of  an  agricultural  tour  in  England,  in  1811, 
which  is  published  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Edinburgh  Farmers'  Maga- 
zine, the  following  passages  relate  to  Mr.  Coke's  estate,  Holkham,  and  to 
Norfolk  generally. 

"  Holkham. — The  soil  here  is  naturally  very  poor,  being  a  mixture  of  sand,  chalk,  and 
flint  stones,  with  apparently  little  mixture  of  argillaceous  earth — the  subsoil,  chalk  ot 
lime-stone  every  where.''  Page  48fi.  "  As  the  soil  of  the  territory  [of  Norfolk  generally] 
through  which  I  passed,  seems  to  have  a  sufficient  mixture  of  calcareous  earth  naturally,  I 
learn  they  do  not  often  lime  their  lands  ;  but  clay  marl  has  been  found  to  have  the  most 
beneficial  consequences  on  most  of  the  Norfolk  soils."  p.  487. 

23.  "  In  Norfolk,  they  seem  to  value  clay  more  than  marl,  probably  because  their  sandy 
soils  already  contain  calcareous  parts." — Kirwan  on  Manures,  p.  87. 

From  this  and  the  preceding  quotation  it  would  .follow,  that  the  great  and 
celebrated  improvements  in  Norfolk,  made  by  marling,  had  actually  ope- 
rated to  lessen  the  calcareous  proportion  of  the  soil,  instead  of  increasing  it. 
Or,  (as  may  be  deduced  from  what  will  foIlow,)tf  so  scientific  and  dili- 
gent an  inquirer  as  Kirwan  was  deceived  on  this  very  important  point,  it 
furnishes  additional  proof  of  the  impossibility  of  drawing  correct  conclu- 
sions on  this  subject  from  European  books— when  it  is  left  doubtful,  whether 
the  most  extensive,  the  most  profitable,  and  the  most  celebrated  improve- 
ments by  "  marling"  in  Europe,  have  in  fact  served  to  make  the  soil  mon 
or  less  calcareous. 

Most  of  the  extracts  which  1  have  presented,  are  from  British  agricul- 
turists of  high  character  and  authority.     If  such  writers  as  these,  while 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 


189 


giving  long  and  (in  some  respects)  minute  statements  of  marl,  and  marl- 
ing, omit  to  tell,  or  leave  their  readers  to  doubt,  whether  the  manure  or  the 
soil  is  the  most  calcareous-or  what  proportions  of  calcareous  earth,  or 
whether  any  is  present  in  either— then  have  I  fully  established  that  the 
American  reader  who  may  attempt  to  draw  instruction  from  such  sources, 
as  to  the  operation,  effects  and  profits  of  either  marl  or  calcareous  ma- 
nures in  general,  will  be  more  apt  to  be  deceived  and  misled  than  enlight- 
ened. 

I  have  now  to  refer  to  an  author,  whose  works,  well  known  as  they  may 
be  to  others,  had  not  come  under  my  view  until  after  the  publication  of 
most  of  the  foregoing  extracts.  Otherwise,  Marshall  would  have  been 
stated  as  an  exception  to  the  general  silence  of  British  authors  as  to  the 
true  and  precise  nature  of  what  they  treated  of  as  marl.  But  though  he 
has  not  been  like  others,  so  faulty  as  to  leave  in  doubt  what  was  the  cha- 
racter and  value  of  the  marls  of  which  he  spoke,  and  the  nature  of  their 
operation  on  the  soils  to  which  they  were  applied,  still  no  other  writer 
furnishes  stronger  proof  of  the  general  ignorance  and  disregard  of  the 
nature  of  marls  and  calcareous  manures,  and  of  their  mode  of  operation ; 
Mti  even  the  author  himself  is  not  free  from  the  same  charge  as  will  be 
shown.  I  shall  quote  more  at  length  from  Marshall,  because  he  presents 
the  strongest  opposition  to  what  I  have  stated  as  to  the  general  purport  of 
publications  on  marling;  and  also,  because  whatever  may  be  their  charac- 
ter, there  is  much  to  interest  the  reader  in  his  accounts  of  the  opinions  and 
practices  of  those  who  have  used  calcareous  manures  longest  and  most 
extensively,  although  without  knowing  what  they  were  doing. 

In  his  Rural  Economy  of  Norfolk,  the  "marls'"  and  "  clays"' most  used 
in  the  celebrated  improvements'  of  that  county  are  minutely  described, 
and  the  chemical  composition  stated,  showing  that  both  are  hichly  calca- 
reous. Of  the  "marls"  or  chalks,  most  used  for  manure  in  Norfolk,  he 
analyzed  three  specimens,  and  one  of  clay,  and  found  the  proportions  of 
pure  calcareous  matter  as  follows : 
Chalk  marl  of  Thorp-market,  contained,  per  cent.  -         -         -    85 

Soft  chalk  of  Thorp-next-\orwich,  93 

Hard  chalk  of  SwafTham,  almost  pure,— nearly     -         -        .         .         100 

Clay  marl  of  Hemsby,  43 

24.  Of  these  he  spoke  previously  and  in  general  terms,  thus: 

"  The  central  and  northern  parts  of  Ihe  district  abound,  universally,  with  a  whitish- 
colored  chalk  marl  ;  while  the  Fleg  hundreds,  and  the  eastern  coast,  are  equally  fortu- 
nate in  a  gray-colored   clay  marl.  n       J 

"  The  first  has,  in  all  probability,  been  in  use  as  a  manure  many  centuries  ;  there  are 
oaks  of  considerable  size  now  going  to  decay  in  pits  which  have  obviously  been  hereto- 
fore in  use,  and  which,  perhaps,  still  remain  in  we,  as  marl-pits, 

"  The  use  of  clay  marl,  as  a  manure,  seems  to  be  a  much  later  discovery  ;  even  yet, 
there  are  farmers  who  are  blind  to  its  good  effect ;  because  it  is  not  marl,  but  "  clay  ;*• 
by  which  name  it  is  universally  known. 

"The  name,  however,  would  be  a  thing  of  no  import,  were  it  not  indiscriminately 
applied  to  unctuous  earths  in  general,  whether  they  cr„,'ain,  or  not,  any  portion  of  cal- 
careous matter.  Nothing  is  "  marl"  which  is  not  white  ;  for,  notwithstanding  the  county 
has  been  so  long  and  so  largely  indebted  to  its  fertilizing  quality,  her  husbandmen,  eveo 
in  this  enlightened  age,  remain  totally  ignorant  of  its  distinguishing  properties  ;  throu  -h 
which  want  of  information  much  labor  and  expense  is  frequently  thrown  away. 

"  One  man,  seeing  Ihe  good  effect  of  the  Fleg  clay,  for  instance,  concludes  that  all 
clays  are  fertile,  and  finding  a  bed  of  strong  brick  earth  upon  his  farm,  falls  to  work  at 
a  great  expense,  to  "  claying"— while  another,  observing  this  man's  miscarriage  con- 
cludes that  all  clays  are  unprofitable  ;  and,  in  consequence,  is  at  an  expense  equally  ill 
applied,  of  letching  "  marl"  from  a  great  distance  ;  while  he  has,  perhaps,  in  his  own 
farm,  if  judiciously  sought  after,  an  earth  of  a  quality  equally  fertilizing  with  that  he  is 
throwing  away  his  time  and  his  money  hi  (etching.— Martha'lf$  Norfolk,  vol.  i.,  p.  16. 
24 


190 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 


Yet  it  is  remarkable,  that  Marshall  should  not  have  intimated  whether 
the  Norfolk  soils  were  naturally  calcareous,  (as  the  two  writers  just  before 
quoted  declare,)  or  not ;  and  therefore  we  are  still  left  to  guess  whether 
these  manures  served  to  increase  the  calcareous  quality  of  soils  already 
possessing  that  quality  in  a  high  degree— or  to  give  it  to  soils  devoid  of  it 
before. 

Other  passages  will  now  be  quoted  from  the  same,  and  from  other  similar 
works  of  Marshall's,  to  show  the  prevailing  ignorance  of  the  ingredients, 
and  operation  of  the  marls  sometimes  prized,  and  sometimes  contemned, 
with  as  little  reason  in  the  one  case  as  the  other,  by  farmers  in  various 
parts  of  England. 

25.  "  The  principal  part  of  his  estate,  however,  is  of  a  much  shallower  soil,  not  deeper 
than  the  plough  goes  ;  and  its  preseut  very  amazing  fertility  he  ascribes  in  a  great  mea- 
sure to  his  having  clayed  it.  Indeed  to  tiiis  species  of  improvement  tire  fertility  of  the 
Fleg  Hundred  is  allowed  to  be   principally  owing. 

"  Mr.  F.  gave  me  an  opportunity  of  examining  his  clay  pit,  which  is  very  commodi- 
ous ;  the  uncallow  is  trifling,  and  the  depth  of  the  bed  or  jam  he  has  not  been  able  to 
ascertain.     It  is  worked,  at  present,  about  ten  or  twelve  feet  deep. 

"  The  color  of  the  fossil,  when  moist,  is  dark  brown,  interspersed  with  specks  of  white, 
and  dries  to  a  color  lighter  than  that  of  luder's  earth  ;  on  being  exposed  to  the  air,  it 
breaks  into  small  die-like  pieces. 

*'  From  Mr.F's.  account  of  the  manner  of  its  acting,  -and  more  particularly  from  its 
appearance,  I  judged  it  to  be  a  brown  marl,  rather  than  a  clay  ;  and,  on  trying  it  in  acidj 
it  proves  to  be  strongly  calcareous;  effervescing,  and  hissing,  more  violently  than  most 
of  (he  white  marls  of  this  neighborhood  :  and  what  is  still  more  interesting,  the  Hemsby 
clay  is  equally  turbulent  in  acid  as  the  Norwich  marl,  which  is  brought  by  water  forty 
miles  into  this  country,  at  the  excessive  expense  of  four  shillings  a  load  upon  the  staith  ; 
besides  the  land  carriage.     [The  strength  of  this  Hemsby  clay  is  stated  above] 

"  It  is  somewhat  extraordinary  that  Mr.  F.,  sensible  and  intelligent  as  he  is,  should  be 
entirely  unacquainted  with  this  quality  of  his  clay  ;  a  circumstance,  however,  the  less 
to  be  wondered  at,  as  the  Norfolk  farmers,  in  general,  are  equally  uninformed  of  the  na- 
ture and  properties  of  marl." — Marshall's  NorJ'olk,  vol.  ii.,  page  192. 

The  following  is  a  remarkable  instance,  in  a  particular  district,  of  a  clay 
very  poor  in  calcareous  matter,  being  considered  and  used  as  valuable  ma- 
nure, and  a  very  rich  marl  equally  accessible,  being  deemed  inferior. 

26.  "  The  marl  is  either  an  adulterate  chalk,  found  near  the  foot  of  the  chalky  steeps 
of  the  West  Downs,  lying  between  the  chalk  rock  and  the  Maam  soil,  partaking  of 
them  both — in  truth,  a*  marl  of  the  first  quality,  or  a  sort  of  blue  mud,  or  clay,  dug  out 
of  the  area  of  this  district,  particularly,  1  believe,  on  the  south  side  of  the  river.  This 
is  said  to  have  been  set  on  with  good  effect  ;  while  the  former  is  spoken  of,  as  of  less 
value;  whereas,  the  white  is  more  than  three-fourths  of  it  calcareous;  w-hile  the  blue 
does  not  contain  ten  grains,  per  cent.,  of  calcareous  matter." — Marshall's  Southern  Coun- 
ties, p.  175. 

The  greater  part  of  what  are  called  marls  in  the  following  extract,  and 
used  as  manure,  contain  so  little  calcareous  earth,  that  whatever  power 
they  may  exert,  must  be  owing  to  some  other  ingredient.  Yet,  without 
Marshall's  analysis,  they  would  be  considered  to  deserve  the  character  of 
calcareous  manures,  as  much  as  any  others  before  named. 

27.  "The  red  earth  which  has  been  set  upon  the  lands  of  (his  district,  in  great  abun- 
dance, as  '  marl,'— is  much  of  it  in  a  manner  destitute  of  calcareous  matter ;  and,  of 
course,  cannot,  with  propriety,  be  classed  among  marls. 

"  Nevertheless,  a  red  fossil  is  found,  in  some  parts  of  the  district,  which  contains  a 
proportion  of  calcareous  matter. 

"  The  marl  of  Croxall  (in  part  of  a  stone-like,  or  slaty  contexture,  and  of  a  light  red 
color)  is  the  richest  in  calcareosity  ;  one  hundred  grains  of  it  afford  thirty  grains  of  cal- 
careous matter ;  and  seventy  grains  of  fine,  impalpable,  red  bark-like  powder.* 


*  This  marl   is  singularly   tenacious  of  its  calcareous  matter;  dissolving  remarkably 
«lowly.     One   hundred  grains,   roughly  pounded,  was   twenty-four  hours  in  dissolving; 


CALCAK1  01  S   MANUKES— APPENDIX  191 

1  Ifonl  (in  color  i  various,  but  resembling  those  of  the 

Croxall  marl)  affords  near  twenty  f  rums. 

"  Yet  the  marl  of  Barton,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Trent— though  somewhat  of  a 
similar  contex  l»y  color — is  in  a  manner  destitute  of  calca- 

reosiij  I. ling  little    more  than  one  grain — nol 

pit,  from  which  I   took  the    |  i /.erf,  is 

an  immense  excavation,  out  of  which  many  thousand  loads  have  been  taken. 

\  ince  from  those 

describe  I,  having  generally  that  of  a  bl l-red  clay,  interlay ercd,  and  sometimes  inter- 

I  with  i  wrote  qiially  poor  in  calcareosily. 

One  hundred  grains  ol  the  may  be  taken  as  a  fair 

lie  district)  afford  little  more  than  two  grains 
of  calcareous  matter.*  Vet  tins  i^  said  to  b"  'famous  marl;'  and  from  the  pits  which 
now  appear,  baa  been  laid  on  in  eroat  abundance. 

'•I  do  nol   mean   to  intimal  clays  are  altogether  destitute  of  fertilizing 

properties,  on  llieir  find  appltca  i  m.  II  is  not  likely  that  the  large  pits  which  abound 
in  almost  every  part  of  Ih  ■  district,  and  which  must  haw  been  formed  at  a  very  great 
expense,  should  have  been  dug,  without  their  contents  being  productive  of  some  evi- 
dently, or  at  le.i^t  apparently  gor>d  effect,  on  the  lands  on  which  they  have  been  spread. 
1    con  but  conjecture;  and   it  may  be,  that  the  good  effect 

of  the  marls,  first  describ  id  being  e»  I  ,  and  tie  distinguish- 

ing quality  being  unknown, or  nol  attended  to,  marls  and  clays  w-re  indiscriminately 
used.'' — Marshall's  Midi  vol.  i,  p.  1.V-'. 

28.  "  On  the  southern  bank  ray  marl;  r mbling  in  gene- 
ral appearance  the  marl  of  Norfolk,  or  rather  the  fuller's  earth  of  Surrey.     In  contexture 

"This  earth  is  singularly  pi  I   le  acid  bei§g  dropped  on  its 

surface,  it  flies  into  bl  marl,      this  circumstance,  added  to  that  of 

a  striking  improvement,  which  I  was  shown  as  being  effected  by  this  earth,  led  me  to 
i    was  of  a  tpiahly  siin  lai  to  the  marls  ol  Norfolk. 

••  But,  fiom  ih ■;  results  of  Iwo  experiments — one  of  them  made  with  granules  formed 
hy  the  weather,  and  collected  on  the  site  of  improvement,  the  other  with  a  specimen 
taken  from  the  pit,  it  appear-  that  one  hundred  grains  of  this  earth  contain  no  more  than 
tix  grains  of  calcareous  matter !  the  residuum  a  cream  colored  saponaceous  clay,  with 
a  9in  ill  proportion  ol  coarse  sand." — Marshall' I  Midland  Counties,  vol.  i:  p.  155. 

The  last  extracts  suggested  a  remark  which  ought  to  have  been  made 
earlier.  When  there  is  so  much  general  ignorance  prevailing  among  prac- 
tical farmers  as  to  what  they  call  marl,  it  cannot  be  expected  that  the  most 
intelligent  writers  can  be  correct,  when  attempting  to  record  their  prac- 
tices. When  Arthur  Young,  for  example,  reports  the  effects  of  marl  in 
fifty  different  localities,  as  known  from  the  practice  of  perhaps  more  than 
several  hundred  individuals,  it  must  be  inferred  that  he  uses  the  term, 
generally,  as  they  did  from  whom  his  information  was  gathered,  and  in 
very  few  cases,  if  at  all,  as  learned  by  his  own  analyses.  Therefore,  it 
may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  character  of  marl 
does  not  extend  very  generally  to  even  the  most  scientific  writers  on  agri- 
culture. 

As  the  foregoing  extract  exhibits  the  use  of  "marls"  destitute  of  calca- 
reous earth,  so  the  following  shows,  under  the  name  of  sea  sand,  a  manure 
which  is  in  its  chemical  qualities  a  rich  marl  (in  our  sense)  or  calcareous 
manure. 

29.  ••  Sea  sand.  This  has  been  a  manure  of  the  district,  beyond  memory  or  tradition. 
"There  arc  two  species  still  in  use:  the  one  bearing  the  ordinary  appearances  of 
sea  sand,  as  found  at  the  mouths  of  rivers;  namely  a  compound  ol  the  common  sand 
and  mud;  the  other  appears  to  the  eye  clean  fragments  of  broken  shells  without  mix- 
ture ;  resembling  in  color  and  particles,  clean  dressed  bian  of  wheat. 

~- 

ilher   hundred,  though  pulverized  to  m-rc  dust,  eontinui  I  to  •n.\e.e.    :.\.h 
with  water,  Itook    repeat - 

dl  the  time  ;  notwithsl 
its  ex'reme  baldness. 

•  ].  idged  not  in  the  substance  ol  the  clay,  but  in  its  natural  cracks  or  fissures. 


192 


CALCAREOUS  MANtTRES— APPENDIX, 


••  By  analysis,  ore  hundred  grains  of  the  former  contain  about  thirty  grains  of  com- 
mon silicious  sea  sand,  with  a  few  grains  oi  line  sill  or  mud;  the  rest  is  calcareous  earth 
mixed  with  the  animal  matter  of  marine  shells. 

'•  One  hundred  grains  of  the  latter  contain  eighty-five  grains  of  the  matter  of  shells, 
and  fifteen  grains  of  an  earthy  substance,  winch  resembles  in  color  and  particles, 
minute  fragments  of  burnt  clay  or  common  red  brick. 

"These  sands  are  raised  in  different  parls  of  Plymouth  Sound,  or  in  the  harbor  ;  and 
are  carried  up  the  estuaries  in  barges  ;  and  from  these  on  horseback,  perhaps  five  or  six 
miles  into  the  country;  of  course  at  a  verv  great  expense,  yet  without  discrimination, 
by  men  in  general,  as  to  their  specific  qualities.  The  shelly  kind.no  doubt  brought 
them  into  repute,  and  induced  landlords  to  bind  their  tenants  to  the  use  of  them;  but 
without  specifying  the  sort— and  the  bargemen,  of  course,  brim;  such  as  they  can  raise 
and  convey  at' the  least  labor  and  expense.  It  is  probable  that  the  specimen  first  men- 
tioned, is  above  par,  as  to  qualitv :  I  have  seen  sand  of  a  much  cleaner  appearance, 
travelling  towards  the  fields  of  ibis  quarter  of  the  country  ;  and  near  Beddifo.-d,  in 
North  Devonshire,  I  collected  a  specimen  under  the  operation  of  "  melling"  with  mould, 
which  contains  eighty  grains  per  cent,  of  clean  silicious  sand  !"— Marslmlis  Wttt  of 
England,  vol,  i.,  page  154. 

It  might  be  inferred  from  all  these  proofs  of  Marshall's  knowledge  of 
calcareous  earth  constituting  the  real  value  of  marls,  that  he  could  scarcely 
miss  the  evident  corollary  to  that  proposition,  that  the  valuable  operation 
of  calcareous  manures  is  to  render  soils  more  calcareous,  and  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  manure  and  the  soil  would  sufficiently  in- 
dicate when  the  application  of  the  one  to  the  other  was  judicious  or  not. 
But  the  following  expression  of  opinion  {Marshall's  Yorlcshire,  vol.  i.,  p. 
377)  is  not  only  strongly  opposed  to  those  deductions,  but  to  the  general 
purport  of  all  his  truths  which  I  have  before  quoted. 

30.  "Nothing  at  present  but  comparative  experiments  can  determine  the  value  of  a 
given  lime,  to  a  given  soil;  and  no  man  can  with  common  prudence  lime  any  land 
upon  a  large  scale,  until  a  mora]  certainty  of  improvement  has  been  established  by  ex- 
perience." 

If  this  be  true,  then  indeed  is  there  no  true  or  known  theory,  or  estab- 
lished precepts,  for  applying  either  lime  or  any  calcareous  manure.  It 
amounts  to  saying,  that  every  new  application  is  a  mere  experiment,  the 
result  of  which  cannot  even  be  conjectured  from  any  facts  previously  known 
of  other  soils  and  other  manures. 

31.  The  next  quotation,  which  is  from  an  editorial  article  in  the  Farmers' 
Journal  of  July  38,  1823,  shows  that  the  old  opinion  still  prevails,  that 
marl  is  profitable  only  oa  sandy  lands ;  which  opinion  carries  with  it  the 
inference  that  it  is  the  argillaceous  quality,  rather  than  the  calcareous  that 
operates.  The  editor  is  remarking  on  a  new  agricultural  compilation  by  a 
Mr.  Elkinson,  and  ridiculing  the  author  for  his  solemn  annunciation  of  the 
truism,  (in  the  editor's  opinion,)  that  "  marling  on  sand  is  more  useful  than 
on  clay  land."     The  reputation  of  Mr.  Elkinson,  says  the  editor 

"  May  remain  undisturbed  among  the  farmers  ol  Lincolnshire  for  a  long  time,  who 
may  never  have  chanced  to  meet  with  the  old  proverb,  or  have  taken  a  journey  into  the 
sandy  district  of  Norfolk.  We  really  do  not  know  whether  it  be  as  old  as  Jarvais  Mark- 
ham  or  not :  but  we  have  seen  the  lollowing  lines  in  black  letter  : 

He  that  marls  sand,  may  buy  land  ; 

He  that  marls  moss,  shall  have  loss ; 

He  that  marls  clay,  throws  all  away!  ' 

The  editor  then  passes  to  a  subject  on  which  his  admitted  ignorance 
serves  to  prove  that  the  improvement  gained  by  marling  could  not  be  sim- 
ply the  making  a  soil  calcareous—  for,  upon  that  ground,  when  marl  has 
once  been' plentifully  given,  and  the  land  afterwards  worked  poor,  there 
can  be  neither  reason  nor  profit  in  a  second  marling.  Yet,  as  if  the  mode 
of  operation  was  altogether  unknown,  this  passage  follows : 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX.  193 

"  It  was  once  asked  of  the  edilor  by  a  very  good  practical  Norfolk  farmer,  '  whether  land 
which  had  been  once  marled  and  worn  out  would  receive  the  same  benefit  from  a  second 
marling?'  It  was  answered,  that  an  experiment  made  on  one  field,  or  on  one  acre, 
would  decide  the  point,  but  conjecture  ltd  to  nothing  conclusive.  It  has  olten  been  ob- 
served that  loose  land,  alter  having  been  marled  and  outcropped,  deposited  ita  marl  in 
the  subsoil,  which  therefore  became  more  retentive  [of  water;]  audit  has  been  sug- 
gested, that  deep  ploughing  ought  to  be  tried,  to  bring  this  marl  again  to  the  top.  We 
hope  that  the  point  hare  in  question  has  before  now  been  settled  by  practice  in  both 
ways;  though  at  the  above  period,  (about  1806,)  such  facts  had  not  reached  the  gentle- 
man alluded  to,  although  a  very  intelligent  man." 

The  singular  fact  stated  above,  of  marl,  and  also  of  lime,  sinking  and 
forming  a  layer  below  the  soil,  is  stated  by  other  British  writers.  No  such 
result  has  been  found  in  this  country,  so  far  as  I  am  informed.  Nor  do  I 
believe  that  it  can  occur,  except  when  the  calcareous  matter  is  too  abun- 
dant to  form  a  chemical  combination  with  the  soil,  or  with  the  matters  in 
the  soil.  According  to  my  views  of  the  manner  in  which  calcareous  earth 
acts,  it  must  form  such  combination  in  the  soil,  to  be  useful — and  if  so 
combined,  it  cannot  be  separated,  and  sink  through  the  soil  by  the  force  of 
gravity,  or  any  other  cause. 

32.  The  next  article  is  probably  one  of  the  latest  publications  on  marl, 
yet  contains  as  little  of  truth,  and  for  its  length,  as  much  that  is  false  and 
absurd,  as  if  it  had  been  written  a  century  ago.  It  appeared  (in  English) 
in  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Agriculture,  (for  Dec.  1834,)  and  is  there 
quoted  from  the  Magazine  of  Gardening  and  Botany,  and  as  written  by 
Count  Gyllenborg.  As  no  contradictory  remarks  are  appended  by  either 
of  the  editors  of  these  highly  respectable  journals,  it  may  be  considered 
as  in  some  measure  giving  their  countenance  to  the  opinions  here  pre- 
sented. 

Though  the  writer  speaks  of  "  acid  in  the  land,"  yet  the  succeeding  part 
of  the  sentence,  which  speaks  of"  imbibing  it  from  stagnating  water,"  shows 
that  no  correct  or  definite  idea  was  attached  to  the  term  "  acid."  The 
entire  piece  is  copied. 

"  How  far  marl  contributes  lo  the  fertility  of  soils,  1st.  Not  materially,  for  it  is  devoid 
of  every  unctuous  and  saline  matter.  2d.  But  instrumental!}'  it  promotes  vegetation, 
by  attracting  the  moisture,  ac-ids  or  oils  in  the  atmosphere,  which  enrich  the  land.  As 
this  quality  becomes  stronger  by  burning,  how  wisely  would  the  farmers  act  in  using  it 
after  being  calcined.  It  promotes  vegetation,  by  destroying  the  acid  actually  in  the 
land,  or  removing  that  which  it  might  be  in  danger  of  imbibing  from  stagnating  water, 
and  bence,  also,  it  may  perhaps  help  to  prevent  a  too  acid  disposition  in  the  seeds.  By 
dissolving  every  unctuous  substance  in  the  land,  whence  arises  a  saponaceous  mixture 
soluble  in  water,  and  fitted  to  enter  into  the  pores  of  vegetables.  By  destroying  the 
toughness  of  strong  soils,  for,  by  its  quickly  crumbling  in  the  air,  the  cohesion  of  a 
clayey  soil  is  diminished,  it  is  rendered  easier  to  cultivate,  and  more  fit  to  carry  on  the 
growth  of  plants.  It  gives  greater  solidity  and  Grmness  to  loose  or  sandy  soils  ;  and,  as 
before  observed,  it  contributes  to  their  fertility,  by  attracting  into  this  dry  soil  the  nutri- 
tive contents  of  the  air.  There  are  some  who  think  that  marl  should  not  be  laid  on 
sandy  soils  ;  but  experience  has  taught  us  to  conclude  otherwise,  having  observed  that 
the  most  beneficial  effects  are  produced  from  it  on  very  light  and  sandy  soils.  Marl 
may  hurt  land  by  too  long  and  a  too  plentiful  use  of  it ;  for,  from  its  calcareous  quality, 
it  much  resembles  lime.  It  soon  dissolves  and  consumes  the  fat  of  the  land — and  it 
loosens  a  clayey  soil,  so  that  it  becomes  less  retentive  of  moisture.  Marl  is,  however, 
very  different,  according  to  its  being  more  or  less  calcareous  or  clayey  ;  and  therefore 
judgment  is  more  or  less  necessary  to  adapt  it  to  the  nature  of  the  soil.  Some  have  re- 
commended it  chiefly  for  wet  and  cold  soils,  and  many  farmers  have  observed  that  it  is 
most  useful  when  mixed  with  rich  manures.  Neither  of  these  observations,  however, 
seems  to  be  correct ;  but  a  due  care  should  be  taken  that  this  manure  be  adapted  to  the 
soil  on  which  it  is  laid." 


194  CALCAREOUS  MANTRES— APPENDIX. 

*&).     NOTE  IV. 

DESCRIPTION  AM)    ACCOUNT    OF  THE    DIFFERENT  KINDS    OF  MARL,    AND    OF  THE    GYP- 
SEOUS   EARTH,  OF  THE  TIDE-WATER  RECION  OF    VIRGINIA. 

Report  to  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  by  Edmund  Ruffin,  Member  and 
Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Board.    1842. 

Within  the  last  twenty-five  years  there  have  been  produced  from  the  ap- 
plication of  calcareous  manures  more  improvement  and  benefit,  both  agri- 
cultural and  general,  in  lower  Virginia,  than  from  all  other  means  and 
sources,  numerous  and  valuable  as  have  been  the  agricultural  improve- 
ments made.  And  for  the  latter  half  of  that  time,  no  one  agricultural  sub- 
ject has  been  treated  of  more  at  length  in  the  publications  of  this  state. 
Still,  there  is  much  required  to  be  known ;  and  it  has  very  often,  and  not 
less  so  recently  than  formerly,  been  required  of  the  writer,  who  has  furnish- 
ed to  the  press  the  larger  part  of  all  that  has  thence  proceeded  on  this  sub- 
ject, to  give  answers  to  inquiries,  which,  however  variously  worded,  amount- 
ed in  substance  to  the  question,  "  What  is  marl  V— or  "  Is  my  marl,  (.or  what- 
ever earth  was  so  termed,)  good  marl,  and  likely  to  be  profitable  as  manure  !" 
It  has  therefore  appeared  to  the  writer  that  it  would  be  useful  to  prepare 
something  like  a  natural  history  or  general  and  full  description  of  the  marls 
of  lower  Virginia;  and  also  of  the  kindred  and  yet  very  different  mineral 
manure,  the  gypseous  earth,  or  "  green-sand-'  earth,  concerning  which  latter 
so  much  error  and  delusion  have  been  spread  and  long  maintained,  and 
so  little  of  truth  or  useful  information  derived  from  the  sources  generally  re- 
spected as  the  highest  authority. 

The  main  difficulty  in  the  treating  of  this  subject  is  presented  in  the  out- 
set in  the  very  term  "  marl,"  which  is  altogether  misapplied  now  in  this 
country,  though  not  so  much  as  it  has  been  and  perhaps  still  is  in  England. 
Since  this  general  course  of  misapplication  was  set  forth  by  the  writer  at 
length  in  the  '  Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures,'  there  have  become  general 
in  this  country  still  other  misapplications  of  this  always  misapplied  term. 
For  the  "  green-sand*'  earth  of  New  Jersey,  which  before  had  been  called 
"  marl"  by  illiterate  farmers  only,  has  been  since  received  under  that  name 
by  chemists  and  the  scientific  reporters  of  geological  surveys  :  and  thus 
confusion  has  become  still  "  worse  confounded."  In  the  following  pages,  I 
shall  be  compelled,  as  heretofore,  to  yield  in  part  to  such  misapplication  of 
the  term ;  but  at  the  expense  of  some  otherwise  useless  repetition,  and  fre- 
quent explanation,  shall  hope  to  avoid  misleading  readers  as  to  each  of  the 
particular  earths  under  consideration.  And,  in  general,  I  shall  in  no  case 
apply  the  term  marl  to  any  but  a  calcareous  earth,  and  of  which  the  calca- 
reous ingredient  or  proportion  of  carbonate  of  lime  is  deemed  sufficient  to 
constitute  the  most  important,  if  not  indeed  forming  the  only  important  or 
appreciable  agent  of  fertilization ;  and  therefore  I  shall  not  so  designate 
either  the  fine  clays,  (not  calcareous,  or  very  slightly  so,)  called  marl  in 
England,  or  the  green-sand  earths  of  New  Jersey,  Delaware  or  Virginia, 
when  containing  very  little  or  no  carbonate  of  lioie. 

True  marl,  as  correctly  understood  and  described  by  mineralogists,  is 
a  fine  calcareous  clay,  containing  very  little  silicious  sand,  and  none  coarse, 
or  separate;  of  firm  texture— not  plastic,  or  adhesive;  does  not  bend 
under  pressure,  but  breaks  easily.  It  is  manifest,  from  its  laminated  ap- 
pearance and  fracture  that  this  true  marl  has  been  originally  suspended  in  ra- 
pidly flowing  waters,  and  deposited  at  the  bottom  by  subsidence,  when  the 
waters  became  comparatively  still ;  as  when  a  rapid  river,  turbid  with  calca- 
reous clay,  reached  a  lake.  Thus,  from  its  manner  of  formation,  such  marl, 
however  argillaceous,  was  of  a  texture  very  different  from  the  almost  pure. 


(.Al.t   vREoUS  MANURES  -Al'PKNUlX. 


195 


or  the  most  tenacious  clays.  The  carbonate  of  linie  also  tends  to  preserve  an 
open  anil  mellow  texture  in  true  marls,  disposing  the  lumps  to  readily  yield 
and  crumble,  or  fall  to  powder  or  to  thin  Hakes,  under  atmospherical  influ- 
ences, which  would  only  affect  clay  by  making  it  an  intractable  sticky  mortar 
when  wet,  or  lump-;  of  almost  stony  hardness  when  dry.  Moreover,  there 
seem-  a  to  believe  that  in  true  marl  there  is  a  cht  mical  combina- 

tion (and  not  merely  a  mixture)  of  the  argillaceous  and  calcareous  ingre- 
dients, induced  by  their  suspension  in  water,  when  the  particles  of  both 
were  in  the  finest  possible  state  of  division,  ami  most  intimate  intermixture, 
while  so  suspended.  Besides  the  crumbling  quality  just  stated,  so  different 
from  clay,  there  is  a  still  stronger  reason  for  believing  that  the  calcareous 
and  the  silicious  parts  of  true  marl  are  chemically  combined,  which  is,  that 
they  cannot  be  separated  by  mechanical  means,  such  as  agitation  and  sub- 
sidence in  water.  For  the  suggestion  that  the  different  earthy  parts  of  true 
marl  are  in  a  state  of  chemical  combination  with  each  other,  I  am  indebted 
to  the  '  Eaaai  sur  In  Marne,'  of  M.  Puvis,  which  work,  in  an  abridged  form, 
1  translated  and  published  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Farmers'  Register. 
The  author  there  also  states  that  the  marls  of  France  are  principally,  if  not 
always,  of  fres  !:-v.  ater  formation,  as  is  shown  by  the  shells  they  contain  be- 
ing either  such  as  belong  to  rivers  and  lakes  or  to  the  land.  This  is  dif- 
ferent from  any  thing  known  In  lower  Virginia;  all  our  known  marls,  whe- 
ther properly  or  improperly  so  termed,  being  deposites  made  in  a  former 
sea,  and  the  shells  being  those  of  sea-anil 

But  though  it  is  proper  to  describe  that  which  only  is  truly  "marl,"  be- 
fore speaking'of  what  is  improperly  so  called,  it  is  also  true  that  there  is 
nothing  to  tell  of  the  use  of  any  true  marl  in  Virginia,  and  scarcely  of  its 
exist,  in  e  in  the  tile-water  region.  I  have  as  yet  seen  it  in  but  few  places, 
and  then  overlying  ordinary  beds  of  fossil  shells,  and  intermixed  therewith. 
This  marl  was  thus  found  in  two  of  my  diggings,  one  on  Coggins  Point 
farm  and  the  other  at  Shellbanks.  In  both  cases,  though  perfectly  charac- 
terized, the  quantity  of  true  marl  was  too  small  to  be  used  separately  from 
the  more  calcareous  and  much  thicker  stratum  of  shell  mar)  below.  This 
true  marl  was  in  many  horizontal  layers,  seldom  more  than  an  inch  in  thick- 
ness, separated  by  other  layers,  sometimes  very  thin,  of  almost  pure  shells 

•  "  It  may  be  Of  some  interest  to  scientific  investigators  to  knowmore  particularly  the 
9hells  of  these  marls  of  France.  In  a  catalogue  annexed  to  the  original  '  Etsai  sur  la 
Matne,'  the  author  names  the  following  shells: 

In  a  marl  sent  fioin  St.  Trivier — yellowish,  compact,  of  homogeneous  appearance, 
and  coming  to  pieces  finely  and  easily  in  water — 
Land  shell — Turbo  elegans. 
Rircr  shells—  Helix  fasicularis,  Helix  vivipara,  (Helix  tentacula,  fMya  Pictorum. 

In  ,i  m.vri  from  Cuiseaux,  Saone  et  Loire — 
■  •  II --  Mi  lanopside  (of  Lamarck.) 

In  a  mail  from  Leugi  \ ,  id  Sonne — 
Land  shell— fChassilie  ndee  (of  Lamarck,  and  DraparnaudJ  fHclix  lubrica. 

In  a  marl  from   St.  Priest  in  Dauphiny — earthy,  yellowish,  very  easy  to  crumble  in 
water — 
Land  shell— fAmbrette  alongte  (of  Lamarck  and  Draparnaud,  'Helix  bilpida. 

In  an  analogous  formation  of  marl,  in  (he  basin  of  the  Rhone,  beween  Meximieux 
and  Montluel,  the  Helix  strict,  a  land  species  is  found  in  great  abundance." 

51.  Puvis  states  that  among  these,  and  among  all  the  species  of  shells  found  in  the 
marls  of  the  basins  of  the  three  gre.it  rivers,  Saone,  Rhone  and  Yonne,  there  are  no 
remains  of  sea  shells.     All  seem  to  have  been  fun  sh   water.     "But  (he 

continues)  as  these  marls  contain  land  shells,  oltcn  in  ;reat  abundance,  we  most  con- 
clude, that  the  revolution  which  heaped  up  the  marls,  has  been  preceded  by  a  time  in 
which  the  land  was  not  covered  by  water,  in  \\hic!i  the  earth  producing  vegetables, 
permitted  the  multiplication  of  the  species  of  land  shells  which  were  found  in  these 
marls."— Essai  sur  la  Marne,  p.  8  to  p.  24,  mid  translation  in  t'armer't  Register,  iii., 
note  to  p.  692. 

t  Living  species  are  still  found  in  the  same  region  similar  to  those  marked  thus. 


196 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 


broken  very  small,  with  some  only  of  the  very  smallest  entire.  The  pure 
argillaceous  marl  is  blue  (though  sometimes  of  buff  color,)  firm  and  compact 
breaks  easily,  but  does  not  bend  however  moist,  and  is  cut  smooth  by  a 
knife,  leaving  a  surface  like  that  of  hard  soap.  This  marl  contained,  in 
the  argillaceous  part,  free  from  the  shelly  parts,  only  10  per  cent,  of  calca- 
reous matter.  Several  other  specimens,  from  other  localities  in  the  same 
region,  were  about  the  same  strength.  Therefore,  even  if  more  plenty, 
there  would  seem  to  be  no  inducement  to  use  our  true  marl,  where  the 
beds  of  fossil  shells,  called  marl,  and  usually  so  much  richer  in  calcareous 
matter,  can  be  drawn  from.  But  in  Europe,  clay  marl  is  reported  as  rich 
as  40  to  60  per  cent,  of  calcareous  matter,  and  indeed  richer,  gradually 
running  into  lime-stone.  In  our  lime-stone  mountain  region,  (and  especially 
in  the  places  of  ancient  lakes  and  ponds,  now  drained  or  rilled  up,  there 
probably  may  be  found  bodies  of  true  or  clay  marl,  comparing  in  strength 
as  manure,  and  in  abundance,  with  the  valuable  European  deposites. 

But  though  it  is  proper  to  know,  and  to  bear  in  mind,  what  is  understood 
by  the  term  marl  by  mineralogists,  and  by  the  well  informed  English  and 
French  agricultural  writers,  in  regard  to  the  extensive  marlings  in  those 
countries,  yet  it  is  necessary  in  Virginia  to  conform  generally  to  the  usage 
which  gives  the  name  of  marl  to  all  earths  mixed  with  fossil  shells ;  and  as 
the  term  is  so  far  improperly  extended,  I  would  carry  it  still  farther,  and 
make  it  embrace  all  natural  calcareous  earths  not  of  stony  hardness.  This 
arrangement  then  would  indeed  include  true  marl,  but  merely  as  one  class, 
and  that  one  of  the  least  noticeable  for  abundance  or  value  of  all  in  this 
country.  The  following  scheme  of  classification  will  conform  to  this  view, 
and  serve  to  make  more  clear  the  descriptions  that  will  follow. 


f   I.  ARGILLO- 
CALCAREOUS 
MARL. 

deposited   in 
and    from 
still  water. 


r 


MARL,  or 
Shelly  earth, 
or  earth 
otherwise 
calcareous  in 
part. 


a.  Yellow  Mio- 
cene Marl. 


II.  SHELL 
MARL. 


fl.  FRESH- 
WATER 
SHELLS, 
grown  in  & 
deposited 
at  bottom  of 
lakes. 


2.  FOSSIL 
SHELLS, 
or  Ancient 
Sea  Shells 


f  MIO- 
CENE 
MARL. 


aa.    Yellow 
sandy  marl. 


bb.   Yellow 
clay  marl. 


cc.  Blue  sandy 
marl. 


EO- 
CENE 
MARL. 


6.  Blue  Miocene  j 
Marl. 


.  Calcareous 
Marl,   with 
very    little   if 
any  Green- 
sand. 

.  Calcareous 
matter  and 
green-sand, 
both  consi- 
derable. 

.  Gypseous   or 
Green-sand 
earth,  with 
very  little  if 
any  shelly  or 
calcareous 
matter. 


dd.  Blue  clay 
marl. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES     APPENDIX  \U/ 

Marl  in  this  wide  sense  may  then  be  first  divided  into  the  two  folio 
great  classes  : 

f.  Bine  irgilto-calcarca  "  true  marl,"  and  which 

is  not  of  itself  shelly,  even  when  in  alternate  layers  Old  contains 

no  separate  ailicious  sand,  or  other  coarse  or  heavy  matters  which  could 
not    remain,   in  a   finely   divided   state,   suspended   in    water   llowir 
I  nit  a  moderate  current.     This  narl,  as  stated  above,  is  abundant  and  rich 
in  some  parts  of  Europe;  but  so  rare  and  Incon  quantity  in 

th  naming  for  agricultural 

ii.  The  seci  nd  great  division  is  sheWmarL,  which  may  be  again  divided 
Into  the  two  Kinds,  of  1,  recent  fresh-water  shell",  and  2,  fossil  or  an< 
eeashella,  left  en  and  covered  within  what  is  now  high  land,  up-heaved  from 
the  former  bottom  ol  thj  ocean,  by  ancient  convulsions,  or  other  great 
changes  of  the  level  ol  the  earth's  surface. 

1.  The  first  of  these  kinds  is  common  in  some  parts  of  Scotland,  and  is 
found  also  in  Vermont  and  probably  other  parts  of  the  northern  stales, 
but  is  not  known  to  exist  in  Virginia.  It  is  formed  by  the  gradual  accu- 
mulation of  the  shells  of  periwinkles  or  other  small  fresh-water  shell-fish, 
tit  the  bottoms  of  the  small  and  shallow  lakes  ill  which  the  animals  had  lived. 
When  the  bottom  had  been  raised  by  this  accumulation,  and  by  deposites 
from  this  and  other  sources,  nearly  to  the  level  of  th  <\  wa- 
ter plants  began  to  grow,  and  to  form  a  nevi  accumulate  of  vegetable  and 
earthy  deposites;  and  finally  the  lake  was  thus  changed  to  a  peat-bog,  wet 
and  miry,  but  free  from  standing  water.  II  is  under  the  peat,  and  some- 
times at  considerable  dep  rich  marl  is  found 
It  is  said  to  be  almost  pure  calcareous  matter,  and  has  been  sold  by  the 
bushel,  in  great  quantity  for  manure  in  Scotland. —  {Edinburgh   Fur 

U 

2.  The  second  is  for  us  the  only  important  division  of  shell  marl,  em- 
bracing all  the  imn  inderlies  nearly  all 
of  the  tide-water  or  tertiary  region  ol  al  >  ol  two  hinds 
designated  by  Pro  I  >l  age  and  forma- 
tion, a  >  'i.ii  agricultural 
varieties  and  sub-varieties  .and  which  will  be 
hereaiier  described  in  order. 

As  the  terms  ••  miocene"  and  -eocene"  are  now  of  universal  acceptation 
among  scientific  writers,  and  are  generally  understood  by  agricultural 
readers  on  marl,  and  the  convenient  for  designating  the  very 

different  descriptions  of  marls  to  which  they  have  been  applied,  they  Will 
be  here  used.  If  the  difference  between  these  two  kinds  were  merely 
geological,  or  in  regard  to  comparative  ages  of  formation,  or  to  the  respec- 
tive fossils  of  each,  it  would  be  useless  to  preserve  it  in  writing  on  agricul- 
ture, however  marked  the  difference,  and  however  interesting,  I 
geologist.  But  there  is  also  a  difference  of  agricultural  character  and  value 
in  these  two  kinds  of  marl.     In   relation  merely  to  each  other,  the  terms 

eocene  and   miocei      maybe  sufficiently  undersl las  the  older  and 

formations.     But  it  will  not  do  as  well  tosul  ter  terms,  because 

they  are  not  erally,  or  in  relation  logical 

formations.     For  there  an  I   others 

•  In  the  Edinburgh 
(most  of  which  was  republished  in  the  Farioi 
body  ol  lias   kind  ol   inell  marl,  u oil 

the  shells  are  ol"  the  water  inai  ,  I  bivalves,  (generallj 

tellina,  animal  tttlu/s,  Lin.)      Kiotn  lln-    I- , 
manure  as  brought  liiin  £  12,000  sterling,  in  the  I-  i-e  had  been  begun 

25 


]9g  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

much  more  recently  formed  than  the  mioccne.  With  neither  of  these  is  it 
necessary  to  encumber  this  article. 

The  different  periods  of  time  of  these  two  different  deposites  of  shells 
were  very  remote  from  each  other,  and  the  latest  of  them  was  also  very 
remote4  from  the  present  time.  In  the  miocene  mail  of  Virginia,  or  later 
of  the  two,  of  the  numerous  species  of  shells  found,  there  are  but  few  kinds 
belonging  to  animals  known  or  believed  to  be  yet  existing;  and  in  the 
eocene  marl  of  Virginia  there  are  almost  none  that  now  exist,  and  very 
few  that  belong  also  to  the  miocene  marls.  According  to  the  highest  geo- 
logical authority,  the  race  of  animals  whose  remains  formed  the  latest  of 
these  deposites,  were  mostly  extinct  before  the  creation  of  man. 

Although  it  might  be  more  conformable  to  regular  or  scientific  arrange- 
ment to  commence  a  general  description  with  the  older  and  lower  deposite, 
the  eocene  marls,  yet  it  will  better  suit  the  purpose  of  agricultural  instruc- 
tion to  reverse  the  order,  by  describing  first  the  miocene  marls,  as  the 
highest  in  the  series  and  the  first  reached,  and  by  very  far  the  most  abun- 
dant and  extensively  accessible,  and  which  therefore,  though  usually  less 
powerful  for  fertilization,  are  much  the  most  important  to  agriculture  in 
Virginia  in  general.  I  shall  therefore  proceed  first  to  treat  of  the  miocene 
marls,  which  are  the  only  kinds  known  in  Virginia  with  the  exceptions  of 
the  two  comparatively  small  districts  of  eocene  marl  which  will  be  hereaf- 
ter treated  of  in  their  order. 

MIOCENE    MARLS. 

When  my  investigations  and  practical  labors  on  this  subject  were  com- 
menced, more  than  24  years  ago,  the  existence  of  marl  of  any  kind  had 
been  noticed  in  lower  Virginia  at  but  a  few  places,  where  naturally  exposed 
along  steep  river  banks,  and  where  cut  through  by  deep  ravines,  and  thus 
rendered  conspicuous ;  and  the  deposite  was  supposed  to  be  very  limited, 
by  the  few  persons  who  had  ever  cast  a  thought  upon  the  subject.  But 
the  attention  and  observation  subsequently  directed  to  the  search,  soon 
showed  that  the  quantity  was  very  far  more  extensive ;  and  now,  though 
not  generally  near  the  surface  of  the  earth,  nor  every  where  accessible,  it 
seems  probable  that  beds  of  fossil  shells  under-lie  much  the  greater  part  of 
all  the  region  between  the  falls  of  the  rivers  and  the  sea-shore.  Except 
at  or  near  the  places  where  exposed  on  the  surface,  as  above  mentioned, 
the  overlying  earth  is  generally  20  or  30  and  even  sometimes  50  feet  thick. 
All  the  marl-beds  appear  to  be  nearly  horizontal,  and  of  course  are  the 
most  deeply  covered  under  the  highest  lands,  and  are  most  easily  accessi- 
ble in  deep  depressions.  The  deposite  dips  gently  towards  the  east,  so  that 
it  lies  too  deep  to  be  visible  near  the  sea-coast.  At  Norfolk,  the  marl  has 
been  recently  reached,  in  boring  deep  for  water,  at  40  feet  below  that  low 
surface. 

The  marl  is  formed  by  the  deposite  and  gradual  accumulation  of  sea- 
shells,  mostly  left  where  the  animals  died ;  and  the  vacancies  between  the 
shells  were  filled  by  the  sand  or  clay,  or  mixtures  of  both,  with  fragments 
of  older  shells,  brought  by  currents  and  deposited  in  what  was  then  the 
sea.  The  remarkably  perfect  state  of  preservation  of  many  very  thin  and 
always  fragile  shells,  and  still  more  the  many  pairs  of  bivalve  shells  that 
yet  are  found  connected  or  in  contact,  prove  that  such  shells  could  not  have 
been  transported,  or  even  much  agitated,  by  the  force  of  the  water.  But 
other  beds  of  marl,  and  also  frequently  the  upper  layers  of  such  as  have 
been  just  referred  to,  show  as  clearly  the  action  of  currents,  or  of  water  in 
violent  and  long  continued  motion,  which  served  to  grind  down  the  shells 


LCAH120US    •  .IPENDIX.  ]  99 

to  small  fragments,  arid  which  also  left,  in  shaping  the  surface  of  the  marl, 
the  marks  of  whirl-pools  or  other   violent  disturbance.     From  such  sup- 

iny  of  the  various  marl- 
actually  exhibit.  1  same 
place,  the  shells  and  their  fra  mients  are  found  of  all  sizes,  and  of  all  condi- 
tions of  preservation ;  and  intermixed,  in  various  proportions,  with  such 
clay,  or  fine  stind,  as  mighl  be  suspended  in  01  borne  by  1  urrents;  so  as  to 
form  beds  of  evei  hade  of  color.  The  shells,  and 
their  fragments,  or  the  carbonate  of  lime,  are  fn  various  pi  I  quan- 
tity, from  10  per  cent,  (or  even  less  in  rare 

of  the  mixture,  or  whole  mass.     In  different  mes  in  eonti- 

us  layers  of  the  same  ells  are  in  c\  preservation 

or  of  decay  ;  from  that  ol  m,  and  often  entire  in  their  calcareous 

structure,  and  the  most  ir  beautiful  tonus  preserved,  to 

that  of  beta  iken  down,  and  almost  reduced  to  a  coarse  powder, 

and  sometimes  even  forming  a  homogeneous  mass  of  still  finer  particles 
In  which  the  forms  of  but  few  if  any  shells  are  distinguishable.  The  ori- 
ginal bright  and  various  colors  of  the  shells  are  lost,  and  they  are  nearly 
all  white — a  few  of  the  hardest  only  being  brown  or  gray.  The  texture  of 
the  mass   also  varies,  from   a  '  1  a   firm   body  of  almost  stony 

hardness.     The  earth  intermixed  with  the  shells  is  generally  much 
sandy  than  clayey,  and    □  Even  when 

the  admixture  of  earth  is  clay.it  rarely  makes  the  marl  appear  the  least 
clayey  in  texture,  or  plastic  or  adhes  but  in  small 

proportion  to  the  shelly  matter.  The  color  of  the  miooene  marls  is  also 
various— generally  either  pale1  yellow  or  dingy  white  or  blue,  sometimes 
bright,  but  more  often  a  dull  blue,  or  ash  color.  The  richest  marls,  of 
homogeneous  texture,  are  nearly  white  when  dry,  and  approach  in  appear- 
ance to  a  coarse  or  impure  chalk.  There  is  no  true  chalk  known  to  exist 
in  this  country. 

The  shell  marls  of  Virginia  are  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  tide-water 
region,  or  the  space  eastward  of  the  rhich  forms  the  fulls  of  all 

our  eastern  rivers.  But  near  Petersburg  (on  the  farm  of  Dr.  William  J. 
Dupuy,  and  other  adjoining  lands.)  there  is  an  exception  to  this  general 
rule,  the   marl   lu-inu   found  about  a  mile   fa 

eastern  part  of  the  granite,  and  passing  under  a  small  stream  which  emp- 
ties Into  the  Appomattox,  a  mile  above  the  lowest  falls.  A  thick  stratum 
has  also  recently  been  f  uind  in  Richmond,  above  the  Penitentiary,  and  of 
course  above  the  lower  falls  of  James  river. 

The  only  important  fertilizing  ingredient  of  the  miocene  marls  is  the 
carbonate  of  lime,  or  shelly  matl  .  some 

slight  additional  benefit  sometime-,  by  ai  cidental  or  peculiar  admixtures 
of  other  substances;  as,  of  animal  matter  still  remaining,  or  of  vegetable 
extract  in  blue  marls,  of  the  oxide  of  iron,  of  a  small  proportion  of  green- 
sand  generally,  and  even  of  the  clay  or  the  sand  respectively  for  soils  de- 
ficient in  either.  Bat  either  and  all  of  these  additional  matters,  though 
giving  some  value  as  manure,  are  of  but  little  importance  in  miocene  marls, 
in  comparison  to  the  main  and  great  agent  of  fertilization,  the  shelly  or 
calcareous  matter.     According  then  to  portiun  of 

this  in  nt,  and  to  its  si  rioa  or  readiness  to  be  reduced 

to  a  state  of  minute  division  in  the  soil,  may  ]  1  live  values 

ef  marls  for  manure.  In  regard  to  the  much  larger  proportions  ol  iirecn- 
sand  in  miocene  marls,  as  asserted  by  other  authority,  some  additional  re- 
marks will  be  hereafter  submitted,  in  the  proper  order  for  consideration. 

As  might  be  interred  from  the  obvious  manner  of  the  deposition  of  the 
mail,  as  befol  ■    waters  of  the  sen  in  violent  and  yet  varying 


200  CALCAREOUS  11ANIRES-APPEXDIX. 

degrees  of  motion,  the  different  horizontal  layers  of  marl,  successively  de- 
posited in  the  same  bed,  and  even  within  a  few  inches  of  perpendicular 
distance  of  each  other,  sometimes  exhibit  remarkable  differences  of  ap- 
pearance, composition,  and  of  value;  while  there  is  also  generally  as  re- 
markable a  uniformity  of  character  of  each  particular  layer,  (though  differ- 
ing much  in  thickness  at  different  places)  throughout  not  only  the  different 
diggings  of  the  same  place,  but  sometimes  for  miles  in  extent.  I  have 
seen  often,  in  diggings  on  different  farms,  and  several  miles  apart,  layers  of 
marl  so  precisely  alike,  and  so  marked  in  peculiar  character,  that  there  could 
be  no  doubt  of  their  being  parts  of  the  same  deposite,  made  at  the  same 
time,  and  by  the  same  operating  natural  causes.  Under  such  circumstances, 
a  practised  eye  can  by  comparison  lix  very  nearly  ti>e  chemical  com- 
position of  similar  varieties,  and  even  more  correctly,  for  general  averages 
of  value,  than  would  be  usually  obtained  from  the  accurate  chemical  analy- 
sis of  one  or  two  specimens  For  the  usual  danger  of  error  is,  not  in  the 
chemical  analysis,  (which  is  easy  enough  made,  and  the  mode  very  cor- 
rect,) but  in  the  selection  of  equal  and  fair  specimens  of  marl  to  exhibit  the 
average  strength  of  the  whole  body  excavated ;  which  requires  much  more 
experience  and  accuracy  than  are  usually  exercised  by  most  operators, 
and  still  more  in  regard  to  proprietors  who  send  specimens  of  their  marls 
to  be  analyzed  by  other  persons.  It  is  highly  important  to  the  farmer  to 
know  the  strength  of  the  marl  he  is  using.  And  to  this  end,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  every  layer  should  analyzed,  or  what  is  better, 
a  specimen  from  an  equal  and  continuous  shaving  of  the  whole  vertical  section 
of  a  digging,  so  as  to  furnish  a  fair  average  of  the  whole  body.  But  afier 
this  trouble  is  once  taken,  the  general  result  will  serve  for  all  the  future 
diggings  at  the  same  place,  and  also  for  similar  bodies  more  or  less  remote. 
The  layers  of  marls  formed  by  shells  left  "in  place,"  or  where  the  ani- 
mals died,  are  in  general,  the  poorest;  and  for  this  obvious  reason,  that  all 
the  hollows  of  and  interstices  between  the  shells  are  filled  by  what  is  most- 
ly earth,  (but  mixed  with  more  or  less  of  shelly  fragments,)  and  that  earth 
is  principally  silicious  sand.  Marl  so  formed,  will  not  have  more  than  35 
to  at  most  40  per  cent  of  calcareous  matter,  and  more  often  only  from  25 
to  35.  The  sand  or  earth  that  would  be  required  to  fill  all  the  hollows  and 
chinks  of  a  body  of  entire  shells,  of  ordinary  form,  though  touching  each 
other  at  their  edges  and  points,  would  necessarily  be  as  much  as  Go  to  75 
per  cent,  of  the  whole  mass.  And  therefore,  it  is  only  because  of,  and  in 
proportion  to,  the  quantity  of  shelly  particles  mixed  and  borne  along  with 
the  earth  brought  by  currents  and  deposited  among  the  whole  shells,  that 
such  marl  is  sometimes  richer  than  25  to  35  per  cent,  in  ralcareous  matter. 
The  degree  of  admixture  of  shelly  fragments  in  this  tilling  earth,  may  be 
easily  judged  ol  by  an  experienced  eye,  and  the  proportion  of  shells  and  large 
fragments  will  depend  much  on  the  forms  of  the  prevailing  kinds  of  shells. 
It  is  easy  to  know  the  marls  formed  by  sheHs  left  in  their  original  place, 
by  the  state  of  the  shells.  Either  the  shells  being  whole,  and  especially  the 
more  fragile  varieties,  or  the  two  sides  of  bivalve  shells  being  found  in 
close  contact,  as  when  the  animal  was  living,  will  show  clearly  that  the 
dead  shells  had  not  been  agitated  or  borne  along  by  currents.  The  beds 
or  layers  formed  by  removal  are  as  easily  known  by  the  broken  and  finely 
reduced  state  of  the  shells.  These  marls  are  usually  much  the  richest  in 
calcareous  matter;  for,  by  the  grinding  operation  of  the  currents,  and  the 
difference  of  specific  gravity  in  the  particles  carried  all  mg,  the  calcareous 
powder  and  clay  arc  deposited  together,  with  but  little  silicious  sand. 
Among  the  richest  marls  are  some  having  whole  shells  in  their  original  places, 
but  of  which  the  interstices  are  filled  by  such  fine  calcareous  and  clayey 
earth  as  could   have  been  deposited  only  in   waters  nearly  still.     Such  are 


CALCAREOUS    Mam  KE8      iPPENDlX.  201 

the  rich  marls  in  and  about  Williamsburg,  and  in  Surry  and  that  belt  of 
.em-rally,  containing  70  to  80  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime. 
The  different  varieties  o  marls  which  will  now  lip  more  par- 

ticularly described  are  not  always  separated  In  different  beds,  but  Bome- 
nt  and  even  adjoining  layers  of  the  same 
bed  or  digging.     The  i  i  &c.,  caused  by  the  greatef  or 

intity  "i  vinous  accidental  ingredients,  however  striking  to  the  eye, 
are  n. n  often  of  much  importance  to  the  value  of  the  marl;  but  only 
(or  principally)  such  differences  as  are  caused  by  the  greater  or  less  pro- 
portion of  shelly  matter,  and  its  state  of  disintegration  and  division. 

(</)   Yellow  marL—  This  kind,  wherever  lou  the  highest 

layers  of  the  particular  body.  That  is,  M-e  be  layers  both  of  yellow 
and  blue  marl  in  the  sanv  .  is  always  al  blue 

,  and  never  in  the  reverse  position.  But  sometimes  the  yellow  con- 
tinues to  the  bottom,  and  sometimes  the  blue  forms  the  top  as  well  as  the 
bottom. 

Yellow  marl  is  usually  found  dry;  that  is,  having  no  springs  or  oozing 
waters,  which  are  generally  reached  on  digging  lower  in  the  body.  But 
the  lower  part,  v,  hue  h  el .  ragh  rarely,  of  the  same  yellow- 

ish or  dingy  white  tint,  so  as  to  make  it  manifest  that  the  color  is  not  de- 
pendent on  the  degree  of  moisture  or  dryness.  The  yellowish  tint  is 
owing  to  the  presence  of  oxide  of  iron,  and  is  pale  or  deep,  approaching 
sometimes  to  reddish  brown,  according  to  the  cpjantity  of  that  coloring 
matter. 

Yelloie  sandymarl  is  the  kind  most  abundant  in  Prince  George  county 
on  and  at  some  miles  distance  from  the  banks  of  James  river,  and  from 
which  some  farms  entirely,  and  others  principally,  in  that  neighborhood 
have  been  marled.  It  is  ol  .-hells  left  in  their  original  place,  the  filling 
earth  being  mostly  of  coarse  sand,  and  the  «  I  body  poor  in  calcareous 
matter,  varying  in  its  proportion  usually  from  'M  to  '60  per  cent,  and  rarely 
richer  than  35  per  cent.  But  it  is  of  such  open  and  loose  texture,  (and 
the  more  so  as  the  sand  is  the  more  abundant,)  that  this  marl  is  easily  and 
cheaply  worked,  and  the  labor  so  applied  is  therefore  often  better  compen- 
sated than  in  diggings  of  much  richer  marl.  In  this  variety  of  marl,  the 
shells  are  usually  entire,  or  in  large  fragments,  but  are  not  firm  or  well 
preserved.  Il  miuic  beds,  or  thick  layers,  they  are  so  finely  reduced  that 
the  mass  seems  to  the  eye  to  be  wholly,  as  it  is  indeed  principally,  a  body 
of  silicious  sand.  From  one  bed  of  this  kind  which  its  proprietor  supposed 
from  its  appearance  to  be  merely  silicious,  it  was  used  as  sand  to  mix  in 
lime  mortar  for  masonry,  and  it  was  found  to  serve  well  for  that  purpose. 
Subsequently  this  bed  of  sand  was  found  to  be  enough  calcareous  to  be 
used  as  manure:  and  was  so  used, and  t"  such  good  profit,  that  the  proprie- 
tor supposed  it  to  be  rich  marl.  In  that  opinion,  however,  he  was  mistaken, 
at  least  as  to  the  ca  ..tents. 

Yellow  day  marl. — But  most  of  the  richest  as  well  as  of  the  poorest 
miocene  marls  are  yellowish.  When  rich,  say  containing  proportions  of 
carbonate  of  lime  h  om  15  to  sO  percent.,  the  marl  is  usually  formed  of 
shells  broken  down,  when  under  the  sea,  to  small  fragments  or  to  powder, 
by  the  grinding  action  of  the  water  in  violent  motion,  and  left  afterwards  to 
settle  in  stiller  water,  according  to  the  specific  gravity.  Or  it  is  the  same  kind 
of  rich  and  finely  divided  water-borne  matter  deposited  on  and  filling  the  hol- 
lows in  and  between  whole  shells  remaining  in  their  i  iriginal  place.  In  either 
ease,  the  small  quantity  of  earth  first  suspended  in  the  current,  and  then  de- 
posited with  the  linely  reduced  shelly  matter,  is  mostly  if  not  entirely  clay; 
as  silicious  sand,  having  more  specific   weight,  could  not  be  suspended  by 


2(j2  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 

the  current  so  long,  or  carried  so  far,  before  being  deposited.  I  lie  few  rich 
clay  marls  of  Prince  George  are  of  the  first  named  variety,  or  composed 
entirely  of  fine  fragments  of  shells  intermixed  with  clay.  The  much  richer 
marls  in  and  about  Williamsburg  are  of  the  other  kind,  there  being  also 
numerous  whole  shells  in  place,  as  well  as  the  interstices  being  filled  almost 
entirely  by  water-borne  fragments,  and  fine  powder  of  other  shells.  The 
other  contents,  making  from  15  to  25  per  cent  of  the  body,  are  principally 
of  a  very  fine  clay  of  pale  yellow,  and  much  less  of  silicious  or  white  quartz 
sand,  oxide  of  iron,  and  green-sand.  Much  of  the  same  kind  of  rich  marl 
is  also  in  other  parts  of  James  City  and  York,  in  the  lower  part  of  Sur- 
ry, and  in  Isle  of  Wight,  New  Kent,  and  King  William  counties,  which  I 
have  seen— and  probably  thrpqghout  the  middle  belt  of  the  marl  region 
of  Virginia.  There  has  beeHKtie  or  none  of  these  rich  clay  marls  seen 
by  me  in  the  upper  range  of  marl  counties,  (these  next  the  falls  of  the 
rivers.)  and  not  much  more  near  to  the  eastern  limits,  or  next  to  where 
the  marl  dips  so  deeply,  as  to  disappear  from  the  surface  and  is  accessible 
only  by  deep  digging.  Perhaps  observations  more  extended,  and  more  ac- 
curate than  mine  have  been,  might  present  different  conclusions. 

The  marls  just  described,  when  separated  mechanically,  (by  the  sieve 
and  by  carefully  washing  in  water,)  seem  to  consist,  for  the  much  greater 
part,  of  pure  sheliy  matter,  mostly  in  large  or  small  fragments,  slightly  co- 
lored by  brown  oxide  of  iron,  and  the  remainder  of  a  very  fine  and  ap- 
parently pure  pale  yellow  clay.  But  this  clay  is  also  composed  in  part  of 
finely  divided  carbonate  of  lime ;  and  the  fine  shelly  matter  is  intermixed 
with  some  silicious  sand  and  a  little  green-sand.  The  bed  of  marl  near 
Surry  Court  House,  (which  is  similar  to  the  marl  at  most  other  places 
thereabout,)  is  of  this  kind  and  general  character ;  and  from  it,  a  large 
body  of  land  has  been  manured  with  great  benefit.  This  body  of  marl  was 
leputed  to  be  among  the  richest  in  green-sand.  From  a  much  larger 
sample  of  the  marl  of  this  bed,  carefully  selected  by  the  proprietor,  at  my 
request  and  for  my  examination,  an  average  portion  taken  was  compos- 
ed as  follows : 

1780  grains,  separated  mechanically,  by  the  sieve  and  by  washing  in 
water,  consisted  of 

Carbonate      Fine  argillaceous     Silicious    Green  sand, 
oflime.  earth.  sand. 

1036  grains  of  shells  and  coarse  frag- 
ments, nearly  pure,  and  so  counted,    1036 
433  grains  fine  shellv  fragments,  &<:., 

which  consisted  of     -         -         -         268  -  -         -         12 

277  grains  fine   yellow   clay,  kc  , 

which  consisted  of     -  65        -        212 

34  loss  in  the  process. 

17*0  1369  212  120  45 

Which  may  be  stated  of  parts  to  the  hundred  thus : 

100  grains  of  marl  contained  of  carbonate  of  lime,  77  grains. 

Silicious  or  quartz  sand,  very  p'ire  and  white,  6J     " 

Green-sand       -------- 

Fine  vtllow  clay  or  argillaceous  earth,  (and  the  I6ss  in  the  latter  pro- 
cess,)  '- 13}     " 


The  richest  bodies  of  these  marls  show  very  few  shells,  or  even  frag- 
ments, and  have  a  homogeneous  texture  and  appearance  to  the  eye,  like 
a  very  impure  chalk  or  sandy  clay.  Such  marls  are  in  James  City.  New 
Kent.  King  William  and  Middlesex  counties.  The  following  are  some  of 
them  of  which  I  have  analyzed  specimens : 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES     APPENDIX.  203 

From  King  William,  (Lip  me^teol  lime. 

i  land)— 88 
"      Now  Kent,  (Col.  Macon's  land)— 88         "  " 

Middlesex,  (Oaks' land)         -        83        "  "  " 

Somo  of  very  similar  appearance,  but  still  more  approaching  in  texture 
to  a  very  soft  rock,  from  Lenoir  county,  N.  ''..  and  the  bank  of  Neuse 
river,  contained  7~>  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime.  Sundry  other  speci- 
mens, of  still  more  homogeneous  and  firm  texture,  from  the  banks  of  the 
Santee,  S.  C,  contained  about  95  per  cent.  Most  of  these  marls  are  soft 
enough  to  be  used  for  manure  as  dug  from  the  pits;  but  the  hardest  lumps 
may  need  burning  to  lime.  Any  hard  enougli  to  need  burning,  and  as 
rich  as  85  per  cent.,  will  make  good  lime  for  cement,  as  well  as  lor  manure. 

Under  a  peculiar  combination  of  circumstances,  the  great  richness  of 
some  marls  operates  to  lessen  the  value  of  the  body  as  manure.  Rain 
water,  when  just  fallen,  always  contains  some  carbonic  acid,  which  admix- 
ture causes  it  to  be  a  solvent  of  carbonate  of  lime.  When  rain  water  then 
can  descend  by  percolation  into  rich  dry  marl,  in  its  passage  it  dissolves 
some  of  the  calcareous  matter,  which  is  again  left  solid,  and  in  crystals,  by 
the  slow  evaporation  of  the  fluid.  These  crystals  of  carbonate  of  lime  are 
slowly  added  to  by  every  recurrence  of  the  like  causes,  until  the  cavities  of 
large  shells,  and  other  openings  into  which  the  water  had  settled,  are  com- 
pletely filled  with  crystallization.  If  layers  of  marl,  less  pervious  to  water 
than  in  general,  oppose  the  descent  of  the  water,  the  crystallization  forms 
in  connected  horizontal  layers,  separated  by  the  thicker  layers  of  softer 
marl.  Such  crystallized  layers  are  found  abundantly  in  the  very  rich  marl 
at  Yorktown,  serving  by  their  stony  hardness  to  impair  the  otherwise  great 
value  of  the  manure.  At  BeOfield,  Col.  Robert  McCandlish's  farm,  a  few 
miles  higher  on  York  river,  the  hollows  of  large  shells  have  been  tilled  with 
beautiful  and  brilliant  crystals  thus  formed.  In  Surry  also,  on  the  land  of 
the  late  William  Jones,  such  crystallization  is  abundant.  For  such  effect  to 
be  produced,  there  are  several  conditions  necessary.  The  superincumbent 
earth  must  be  of  open  texture,  and  not  very  thick — or  rain  water  couKI  not 
pass  through.  It  must  not  be  a  hill-side — as  the  water  would  How  off  the 
surface  and  not  penetrate  to  the  marl.  And  the  marl  must  be  dry — or  eva- 
poration could  not  take  place,  and  of  course  not  crystallization. 

Gloucester,  though  one  of  the  outside  marl  counties  to  the  east,  is  most 
abundantly  supplied  with  marl,  accessible  on  almost  every  farm,  whether 
of  high  or  of  low  grounds.  It  is  generally  of  the  poorer  yellow  kind. 
But  three  marked  exceptions  were  seen,  which  as  such  deserve  to  be 
named.  One  is  the  rich  clay  marl  forming  the  north  bank  of  Ware  river 
on  the  farm  of  Mr.  Alexander  Taliaferro.  Another  is  the  general  sub-soil 
(as  it  may  considered  from  its  position)  of  the  lowest  land  of  the  larm  of 
Mr.  Jefferson  Sinclair,  near  the  mouth  of  Severn  river.  This  is  an  almost 
pure  body  of  coarse  shelly  powder,  or  fragments,  seldom  found  larger 
than  two  or  three  grains  in  weight,  and  a  very  few  shells,  of  as  minute  size, 
entire  enough  to  be  distinguished.  This  mass  of  shelly  matter  is  as  loose 
and  incohesive  as  coarse  sand,  yet  is  tinged  slightly  with  green  by  the  ad- 
mixture of  greenish  clay.  A  specimen  analyzed  contained  72  per  cent, 
of  carbonate  of  lime.  (See  more  full  account  at  page  181,  vol.  vi.  Farmers' 
Register.)  The  third  is  the  marl  used  by  Capt  1'.  E.  Tabb,  and  dug  from 
beneath  the  low  grounds  on  North  river.  It  is  a  mass  of  pulverized  shells. 
colored  by  red  or  brown  oxide  of  iron. 

(b)  Blue  marl—  This  i>  the  most  common  kind  in  the  upper  range,  or 
near  the  western  In  _rreat  marl  deposite.    Thereabouts,  blue  marl 

usually  forms  the  whole  thickness  of  the  bed.     More  eastward,  and  lower 


20-1  CALClBEOUS   MANURES— APPENDIX. 

down  the  country,  it  sometimes  forms  the  whole  of  low-lying  beds,  but 
more  usually  only  tl is 

yellow. 

Blue  marl  is  general]}-  such  as  remains  '•  in  pta 
were  left  by  the  death  of  the  enclosed  animals,  and  the 
is  mostly  silicious  sand;  and  therefore,  (and  not  because  of  fts  cole. 
marl  is  rarely  found  as  rich  as  45  per  cent,  and  is  still  n. 
the  yellow  clay  marls,  though  generally  richer  than 

Blue  marl  in  the  bed 
oozing  from  every  part,  though  seldom  fast  any  where, 
or  veins  of  running  water.     The  blue  color  is  not  cause 
some  yellow  marls  are  also  peri 

other  dark-colored   putrescent  matter,  brought  in  the  perco..      _ 
This  inference  I  have  drawn  from  extensive  observation  of  the  natural 
beds,  and  also  from  several  accurate  though  accidental  experiments,  of 
which  the  first  that  was   observed  will   be  here 
yard  was  covered  6  to  10  inches  thick  with  a  rich 

purpose  of  retaining  by  chemical  combination  the  e  putrescent 

manure  which  was  to  be  thrown  there  from  the  s  hning 

for  this  use  a  year  or  more,  this  flooring  of  marl  was  Jug  up  and  carried 
out  for  manure:  when  it  was  found  to  be  chang-  a  deep  and 

vivid  blue,  and  precisely  like  the  natural  color  and  appea:  nder- 

stratum  of  the  same  body  of  marl,  which  being  an  ope:.  pure 

mass  of  pulverized  [and  water-borne)  fragments  of 
trated  by  and  always  fa 

is  that  all  marls  for  \  :ely  under  s. 

table  matter,  are  blue.     And  this  coloring 

merely  intermixed  with,  but  must  be  held  in  chemical  combination  by  nH 
calcareous  matter  :  and  serves,  according  to  its  quantity,  in  bl . 
an  an  addition  to  the  fertilizing  power 

particular  body  of  marl  above  refer..  atum  of  y: 

the  most  marke!  or  vivid  blue 

Prince  George,  and  from  which  I  dug  and  applied  a  la; .  The 

greater  part,  and  all  the  richest  layers  seemed  to  be  of  shells  brol 
to  a  coarse  powder,  or  e:  an  fine  gr„ 

water  rose  and  passed  so  freely  as  to  forbid  digging  to  the  bottom, 
small  quantity  of  clay  or  lixed  with  the  calcareous  earth 

of  this  marl  is  altogether  insufficient  to  hold  ^ 

moreover,  if  the  coloring  matter  were  not  chemically  combined  with  the 
calcareous,  the  continued  free  passage  of  water  must  have  dissolved  and 
washed  off  an}-  uncombined  vi  ole  body  of  mar), 

both  the  dry  and  yellow  ell  as  the  blue  and  wet  ; 

was  all  brought  and  deposited  by  currents,  as  is  manifest  by  the  dh 
layers  of  different  specific  gra-. 

layers  of  a  fine  caleareov.-  ore  mentioned,)  which  ma; 

dered  as  the  true  marl  of  mineralogists,  though  in  very  small  qn 
Ivses  were  carefully  made  of  every  different  quality,  and  the  results  may  be 
interesting  as  showing  how  much  one  lay- 
adjoining;  and  different  specimens  not  m  re  I 
Upper  dry  pan.  yellow,  and  loo?    .     - 

face)  from  3  to  7  feet,  contai]  ■         53  per  cent. 

Next  layer  below,  brownish  yel" 

passes.  -  -  -  -  -  - 

About  12  inches  lower,  in  the  blue,  ... 

men  below 
Layers  of  clay  marl,  inters;     -  -     • 


CA1  I  ^06  ' 

And  in  a  mi  th  of  four  specimens  of  the  blu,e  part 

of  the  marl  was  us  foficfv  a : 

Bi  the  first  foot  depth  of  blue  under-stratum  -  -        o2  per  cent. 

In  the  ..... 

reel  -  -  -  -  -  76 

At  l  loci,  and  lowest  digging  then  effected  -  70        " 

It  may  readily  be  infern  ese  various  results,  that  if  one  or  two 

specimens  only  had  been  analyzed,  and  these  taken  with  no  more  care  than 
is  commonly  used,  that  a  very  deceptious  report  might  have  been  furnished 
iking  even  the  most  accurate  analyses. 
I  oncholo'gists  and  geologists,  who  have  treated  so  much'of  marls  but 
merely  in  reference  to  the  shells  they  furnish,  or  to  their  geological  character, 
speak  of  the  blue  marl  as  firmed  by  shells  being  imbedded  in  a  blue  day. 
i:ut  the  earth  is  not  generally  a  clay,  nor  any  thing  even  approaching  to  a 
clay,  but  is  mostly  of  silicious  sand.  The  ordinary  blue  marl  contains 
usually  from  three  to  four  times  as  much  pure  silicious  sand  as  of  clay. 
From  various  specimens  of  two  diggings  in  such  marl,  from  which  more 
than   300  acres  were  marie  I  .us'   Point  farm,  the  following 

were  found  by  analysis:  ' 
Yellow  marl  (wet)  thin  layer  at  top,  contained  of  carbonate  of  lime  24  grains. 
Within  of  top,  shelly  matter  finely  divided,  and  the  mass  uni- 

form dull  blue  color,  100  grains  contai 

mate  of  lime.  -        -        - 34  grains. 

White  silicious  si ii,, I. 4/ 

Clay,  black- wHen  moist,  and  dark  gray  when  dried,    -       -  19 

100 
Like  blue  marl  from  another  pit   in  the  same  body,  100  grains  contained: 

ol  lime, -        -34  grains. 

Silicious     ind, 52 

'lay, 11 

100 
of  another  specimen  from                    and  of  similar  marl,  100  grains  con- 
tained of  carbonate  of  lime  

At  6  feet  deep,  (the  shell  not  much  reduced,)  carbonate  of  lime      44 
\t  13  feet  deep,  and  one  foot  from  bottom,  33 

few  hard    lumps   of  conglomerated  shells   and   earths 
scattered  thn  73 

From  a  dig  -fourths  ofa  mile  distant,  of  mar]  of  the  sarni 

peaTano  ired  to  be  the  same  body  as  the  preceding!  the  general 

average  ol  sin  several  trials  at  different  depths,  wa- 

in I0U  grains  ol  marl,  85  of  carbonate  of  lime.  The  thickness  of  this 
b6dy,  where  penetrated,  varied  from  II  to  II  feet;  where  there  was  a 
marked  thougjj  not  entire  shelly  matter, and ini  ious 

sand  of  Ihc  same  blue  tint,  flhe  deeper  removal  was  stopped  because 
■  ft  ho  obvious  poverty,  and  no  further  examination  of  more  than  a  fool  or  two 
in  depth  was  made   m  this  poor  substratum.      In  but  lew  ><l~  all  I  OS 

diggings  made  by  myself,  or  ofi  marl 

been  reached-  i  many,  and  most  generally  when  j  deeply 

enough,  it  becomes  so  poor  as  to  be  not  worth  the  labor  of  removing. 
In  the  only  known  cases,  when  digging  the  marl  for  manure,  that  the  bottom 
of  the  niiocenc  ,\  as  \  roen-sand 

earth,  or  eocene  marl.     In  well,  at  Shellbanks  in  Prince  George 

my  then   resideno  bed  of  firm  blue  marl, 


206 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 


of  broken  (or  water-worn)  shells,  obviously  the  same  kind  dug  at  another 
place  for  manure,  and  described  at  page  204,  a  sofi  brown  sand  was  reached, 
apparently  destitute  of  calcareous  matter,  and  from  which  rose  an  abundant 
supply  of  pure  and  soft  waler  to  the  height  of  13  feet,  which  stood  altoge- 
ther in  this  blue  marl,  without  its  purity  being  affected  either  by  the  cal- 
careous matter  of  the  marl,  or  its  coloring  matter.  The  continued  purity 
of  this  water  is  an  additional  proof  that  the  blue  coloring  matter  is  chemi- 
cally combined  with  the  carbonate  of  lime — and  the  combination  is  a 
visible  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  marl  holds  to  and  fixes  putres- 
cent manures. 

Mr.  William  Carmichael,  of  Queen  Ann's  county,  Maryland,  an  intelligent 
agriculturist  and  an  experienced  and  observant  mailer,  is  of  opinion  that 
there  is  a  perceptible  superiority  of  efiect  of  blue  marls  over  others  of 
equal  (and  even  greater)  strength  in  calcareous  matter.  (Farmers'  Regis- 
ter, vol.  vii.  p.  100.)  This  superiority  of  effect  must  be  caused  by  the 
vegetable  or  other  putrescent  and  alimentary  matter  being  combined  with 
the  calcareous,  and  by  its  presence  giving  color  to  the  blue  marl.  And 
that  the  blue  color  is  thus  produced  is  fully  proved  by  the  facts  stated  at 
page  204,  and  by  my  more  genera!  observation. 

Excepting  then  the  additional  value  in  the  vegetable  extract  which  gives 
the  color,  there  is  no  difference  between  the  blue  and  the  yellow  marls, 
other  than  the  difference,  as  cf  any  marls  of  similar  color,  in  their  re- 
spective amounts  of  calcareous  matter.  And  the  same  may  be  said  of  wet 
and  dry  marls,  which  are  generally,  but  not  always,  distinguished  by  the 
above  colors;  and  also  of  any  other  miocene  marls,  excepting  for  such 
proportion  of  "green-sand"  as  is  sometimes  present.  But  there  is  reason 
to  believe  that  wet  marls,  in  many  cases,  have  lost  some  of  their  ancient 
strength,  by  the  continued  though  very  slow  percolation  and  subsequent 
discharge  of  water  through  the  mass.  If  recent  rain  water  penetrates  wet 
marl,  it  dissolves  some  carbonate  of  lime,  (by  means  of  the  carbonic  acid  in 
the  rain-water;)  and,  as  the  water  slowly  flows  off,  or  oozes  out,  instead  of 
being  evaporated,  the  dissolved  lime  is  washed  into  the  nearest  stream,  and 
is  lost,  instead  of  being  left,  crystallized  or  otherwise,  as  in  dry  marl. 
Again — if  water  flows  over  having  sulphate  of  iron  (copperas)  in  solution, 
(which  is  not  a  very  rare  case,)  that  dissolved  salt  acts  with  the  carl  nmate 
of  lime  to  produce  the  decomposition  of  both  the  sulphate  of  iron  and  the 
carbonate  of  lime,  and  from  two  of  their  component  parts  to  form  sulphate 
of  lime.  And  as  this  is  slightly  soluble  in  water,  it  must  be  carried  off  bj 
the  slowly  oozing  water,  as  long  as  any  of  these  new  salts  remain.  In  this 
case,  the  carbonic  acid  is  evolved,  and  the  iron  is  precipitated — and  often 
fills,  or  coats  the  interior  of  the  spaces  before  filled  by  the  shells  which  this 
chemical  process  had  decomposed  and  removed.  This  effect  when  pro 
duced,  is  seen  at  the  upper  purl  of  the  marl,  where  the  copperas  water  first 
touches  the  shelly  matter.  In  Henrico,  near  the  western  limit  of  the  marl, 
there  is  generally  over  the  present  highest  shells  a  body  of  earth  of  color 
and  general  appearance  verj  similar  to  tjjfcniafl  below,  and  full  of  hollow 
impressions  of  shells,  though  no  shelly  nor  even  any  calcareous  matter  now 
remains.  In  other  mails,  there  is  often  seen  an  upper  layer  colored  brown 
by  this  deposite  of  iron.  Both  these  are  different  modes  of  the  same  ope- 
ration; the  waters  charged  with  sulphate  of  iron  having  in  the  latter  case 
decomposed  and  removed  but  part,  and  in  the  former  all  the  calcareous 
matter,  to  some  depth  below  the  former  top  of  the  stratum  of  marl. 
The  marl,  in  the  upper  part  of  which  the  shells  have  been  thus  dissolved 
and  removed,  has  a  decided  sulphureous  odor,  which  is  left  very  perceptible 
on  the  hands,  after  handling  the  marl  as  dug;  and  this  odor  is  still  more 


QALCAR£<  DS  M  iNl  Rl  v>()7 

manifest  in  the  marl  when  II  he  i  I  I  ex] id 

some  days .to  the  weather.    Such  marl  is  within  .  llqjpnond, 

at  Dr.  Chamberlayne's  and  Col.  <  .  W.  Gooch'a  forma  ft  is  pooi  in  calca- 
reous matter. 

The  comparative  values  of  marls  are  fixed  by  the  comparative  propor- 
tions oi  carbonate  of  lime  Contained,  other  circumstances  being  alike;  vet 
if  these  circumstances  ai  rent,  they  may  make  a  mail  containing 

but  2."i  per  cent,  worth  more  than  another  of  ."id  per  cent.  The  more  linely 
reduced,  or  the  more  rotten  the  shells,  the  quicker  the  action  will  he.  and 
the  more  profitable  the  marling.  Cut  all  the  while  shells,  however  hard  and 
entire  when  applied,  are  dissolved  in  a  \'c\v  years,  if  the  soil  really  needs  so 
much  lime — that  is,  (according  to  my  views,)  if  there  be  acid  of  soil  en 
to  combine  with  the  lime.  But  the  brown  or  slate-colored  shells  seem  to 
be  insoluble  and  almost  indestructible,  and  do  very  littli  nure. 

These  shells  are  the  several  species  of  scallop  (pa-ten)  and  of  fossil  oysjter, 
(ostreu,)  and  some  few  others,  all  fortunately  being  but  in  small  proportion 
to  the  numerous  while  and  softer  shells.  Some  beds  of  marl,  however,  or 
layers,  have  mostly  the.se  hard  shells,  and  therefore  are  worth  very  little 
compared  to  what  their  chemical  analysis  would  indicate. 

A  list  of  most  of  the  shells  found  in  the  miocene  marls,  and  also  of  the 
eocene  of  Virginia,  (and  of  which  specimens  are  in  my  collection,)  will  be 
annexed  to  this  article,  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  the  scientific  know 
and  kind  assistance  of  Mr.  M.  Tu6mey.  But  as  the  scientific  names  will 
be  of  but  little  use  to  many  readers,  it  may  be  useful  to  describe  in  ad- 
vance a  few  of  the  most  common  shells,  peculiar  to  the  miocene  marls,  and 
which  can  scarcely  be  mistaken.  Such  are  the  various  large  scallop  shells, 
(pecten,)  oysters,  (oslrea  Virginica,  $c.) — hollow  tubes,  about  the  thickness 
of  a  large  pipe-stem,  and  open  at  both  ends,  (serptila,)  and  eliptical  funnel- 
shaped  shells  having  a  small  hole  at  the  bottom,  [faaurella.)  These  refer- 
ences will  be  enough  for  any  person  acquainted  with  the  shells  by  sight,  but 
not  acquainted  with  their  scientific  names  If  however  even  very  slightly 
informed  in  the  latter  respect, "the  observer  will  not  heed  any  such  e 
nations. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  otherwise  than  vcrj  concisely  as  to  the 
practical  applications  and  effects  of  mi  marl  ;  for  this  is  the  kind 

in  general  use  throughout  lower  \  irginia  and  Maryland  and  to  such  small 
extent  as  has  been  used  in  North  Carolina,  and  thi  ion  is 

well  known.     All  the  usual  an  nd   highly  beneficial  effects  ol 

marl   known,    with   but   few  exceptions  in  the  limited   district 
marl,  (hereafter  to  be  described,)  are  due  to  the  miocene  marls.     Vnd  ol 
such  effects,  there  have  lieen  numerous  staten  raJ  and  particular. 

The  operation  of  the  eocene  mails,  and  especially  those  largely  mixed 
with  "  green-sand,"  is  different,  and  superior^  bul    theii    i  en  so 

limited,  and  so  few  statements  of  effects  published,  that  nearly  all  the 
particular  results  and  general  statements  of  effects  yet  laid  before  Die 
public,  in  the '  Essay  oja  calcareous  Manures' or  elsewhere,  have  been  in 
relation  to  the  miocene  marls.' 

i.w:    MARL, 

('•)—  Cakafinux  marl,  containing  but  liltk  grecn-san 
in    Virginia   of   the    marl   now    kno  ivercd 

in  1 S 11)  hy  myself,  in   the  south  hank  i'er,  underlying  the  pjp 

montoiy  of  Coggins  Point;  and  in  the  same  yen  il  was  tried  as  ma- 
nure.    The  texture  and  general   appearance  of  this  marl  were  obvious 


208  CALCAREOUS  MANVKES— APPEXMX. 

ly  peculiar ;  and  its   effects  as  manure  were   soon  also  observed  to   be 
in  some  measure  different  from  those  of  the  other  marls,  which  I  had  then 
used,  and  which  were  all  of  the  kind  now  distinguished  as  miocene.     Ai 
that  time  these  terms  had  not  been  introduced,  and  for  perhaps  fifteen 
years  afterwards,  I  did  not  so  much  as  hear  of  the  terms  '-eocene"  and 
"miocene;"  but  their  difference  of  age,  appearance,  and  agricultural  cha- 
racter were  not  therefore  the  less  evident  and  obvious  to  my  observation. 
The  manifest  difference  of  effects  as  manures  was  then  ascribed  by  me 
to  the  general  if  not  universal  presence  of  a  small  proportion  of  sulphate 
of  lime,  or  gypsum,  in  the  eocene  marl.     The  belief  in  the  general  presence 
oi~  gypsum"  was  very  early  induced  by  my  seeing  in  a  few  places  small 
crystals  overlying  and  in  contact  with  the  surface  of  the  bed  of  marl :  and 
also  by  the  apparent  results  of  such  poor  attempts  as  I  subsequently  made 
to  ascertain  the  presence  *bf  titt -substance,  by  means  of  chemical  tests. 
Upon  such  imperfect  tests,  ano^D^he  still  more  imperfect  knowledge  and 
skill  which  I  could  apply  to  the  investigation,  (amounting  indeed  to  a 
nothing.)  very  little  reliance  ought  to  have  been  placed.     Nevertheli 
thence  inferred  that  there  was  universally  present  and  diffused  through  the 
body  of  this  marl  a  small  proportion  of  sulphate  of  lime,  (say  one  or  two 
parts  in  the  hundred.)  and  subsequent  agricultural  practice  has  supplied 
the  confirmation,  which  has  not  yet  been  sought  for  by  the  superior  chemi- 
cal knowledge  and  skill  of  any  other  and  late  investigator.     In  the  earliest 
publication  of  my  views  on  calcareous  manures  in   1621,  the  gypt 
character  of  this  particular  body  of  marl  was  affirmed,  and  the  peculiar 
character  of  the  results  of  the  first  experiments  with  it  stated.*     And  in 
the  edition  of  1832  of  the  -Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures,'  the  general 
and  full  description  of  this  marl   was  given   precisely  as   it  now  stands 
in  pages  92  and  93  of  the  latest  edition.     My  still  earlier  discovery  of  and 
observations  upon  the  peculiar  character  of  the  underlying  bed  of  gypseous  or 
" green-sand'  earth,  (which  will  be  treated  of  subsequently, 
observe  the  peculiarities  of  the  eocene  marl,  which  being  less  distinctly 
marked,  might  otherwise  have  escaped  my  notice. 

As  stated  above.it  was  not  from  any  knowledg  .  eal  theories 

of  successive  formations,  and  different  ages  and  periods,  of  all  which  I 
was  profoundly  ignorant,  that  my  opinion  of  the  peculiar  character  of  this 
marl  was  influenced.  But  judging  solely  from  the  more  rotten  and  disinte- 
grated state  of  the  shells,  and  their  entire  disappearance  generally,  even 
though  their  calcareous  material  remains — and  from  the  total  difference  of 
kind  of  the  few  shells  remaining  whole,  or  of  which  the  shape  is  distinctly 
marked,  from  any  others  of  the  many  shells  then  known  to  me  in  any  otber 
marls,  I  very  early  formed  the  opinion  that  this  bed  was  one  of  the  re- 
mains or  ruins  of  a  condition  of  the  earth  much  more  ancient  than  that 
in  which  the  ordinary  marls  had  been  formed.  I  remember  having  stated 
this  opinion  to  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  several  geologi-  liferent 

times  visited  my  dwelling  place  and  my  marl  excavations.  This  was  the 
since  notorious  Mr.  Featherstonhaugh,  to  whom  I  pointed  out  this  curious 
and  to  me  highly  interesting  deposite,  anWrequested  his  attention  to  the 
more  modern  and  very  different  (miocene)  marl  lying  immediately  upon 
and  in  close  contact  with  the  much  more  ancient  formation  below.  This 
remarkable  feature  I  also  showed  at  a  later  time  to  Professor  "William  B. 
Rogers,  who  was  much  struck  with  the  fact,  and  attached  so  much  impor- 

*  American  Farmer,  vol.  Hi.,  p.  317,  and  also  the  satne  experiments  number?  r. 
20,  of  the  present  edition  of  '  Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures.' 


..  i'i  \im\  209 

tance  to  it,  that  he 
The  most  ready  ui  u-LJs  by 

ice  to  some  of  the  this  kind,  and  whi<  h  are  never 

found  in  miocene  marls.     The  13  such;  but  the  n 

and  well  marked  are  the  two  following:    1st,  tl  ata,  a 

bivalve  whi  1  unnlng  from 

the  point  at  the  hinge  of  the  \  e  ol  the  out 

rig  parts,  and  widening  as  I  alike,  and 

:  outlines  ap  in  more  than  three 

inches  across  anil   I  ted  valves  nearly  two  inches  through,  but 

illy  of  much  smaller  and  formia, 
or  saddle  oyster,  a  curiously  and  variously  contorted  brown  ami  very 
hard  bivalve  shell,  the  larger  valve  of  which  ap  shape  and 
This  shell  is  sometimes  found  inure  than 
live  inches  in  length.  Both  of  these  shells  are  abundant,  especially  the 
ear  (lit  a  planicosta,  in  this  particular  bed  ol  in  the 
upper  part  ui' all  the  other  eocene  marls  since  known  elsewhere  in  Virgi- 
nia.    Without  reference  1  1  these,  or  to  soni 

the  eocene  marl  might   not  always  he  distinguishable  by  its   texture   or 
general  appearance  from    the  miocene.      And    even   these  two   shells,  the 

abundant  and  characteristic  of  the  eocene  formation  generally,  are 

For  some  years  alter  the  first  discovery  and  application  of  this  calcareous 

marl  on  C< ins  Point  farm,  it  was  not  known  to  exist  elsewhere. 

For  even  h  ble,  and  at  later  times  used,  its  different  eharactei 

was  neither  know  1  ted  by  its  proprietors.     As  chance  furnished 

tome  opportunities  ol  seeing  the  beds,  or  as  small  specimens  of  the  marl 
were  sent  to  me  for  examination,  1  gradually  came  to  know  the  greater  ex- 
tent 1  11  is  now  known  at  various  points  in  an  area  of  about 
twelve  miles  in  length,  from  east  to  west,  and  eighl  or  ten  miles  wide,  which 
area  takes  in  parts  of  the  counties  of  Prim  iich  has  much  the 
larger  portion,)  1  lharlel  City,  and  the  lower  point  of  <  -hesterfield.  And  in 
tliis,!i  the  broad  bed  of  James  river,  and  the  lower  parts  of  its 
considerable  tributaries,  Appomattox  river,  and  Bailey's,  Powell's, and  Her- 
ring creek's.  The  marl  is  exposed  to  view  on  the  southern  side  of  James  river, 
at  the  following  several  points:  ( 'oggins  1'oint.  Maycox,  (a  mile  below,  and 
the  most  eastern  exposure  known.)  Tarhay.  Wm.  II.  Harrison's  farm,  and 
Beaver  Castle,  all  above  mi  the  river—  Eelbank  and  llawksnest,  (the  most 
southern  exposure.  1  on  Powell's  creek—  the  <  >ld  1  'ourt-house  tract  and  Spring 
Garden  farm,  both  on  Bailey's  creek,  and  the  latter  from  one  to  two  miles 
the  head  of  its  tide,  and  three  miles  south  of  the  Appomattox  where 
ite.  The  lasl  is  the  mosl  weste  Qn  the  northern  side 
of  the,  Appomattox,  it  is  seen  in  the  ri  Bermuda  Hundredfand 
north  of  James  river,  and  of  Herring  creek,  at  \eston  and  Evelynton. 

Through  nearly  all  this  large  area,  this  bed  of  marl  \  mark- 

able  uniformity  of  appearance,  texture,  chemical  character  ai 
tion,  and  even  of  the  tbicknen  of  the  stratum,  and  of  the  succession  and 
variations  of  character  of  the  several  smaller  layers  of  the  general  body. 
The  bed  lies  nearly  horizontal,  but  dips  slightly  and  irregularly  eastward 
and  northward.  At  1  oggins  Point,  its  lower  part  is  10  to  1-2  feet  above 
high  tide,  while  at  Maycox,  a  mile  to  the  east,  and  at  Evelynton  three  miles 
north,  it  is  Tower  than  high  tide  rnarl^.     Yet  not  so  mui  <•!"  ele- 

een   in  all  th<  ..u  I   to   Bermuda 

Hundred.     The  stratum  .  feet  to  infect  thick,  being  thinnest 


•210  CALCAREOUS  MANURI  AD1X 

at  it.-  south-western  extremity,  Spring  Garden*  and  thickest  at  Ibe  north- 
eastern. Xeston  and  Evelynton.     .  t  Coggna  Point,  where  traced  along  the 

face  of  the  river  cliff  continuously  for  more  than  half  a  mile,  it  is  usually 
six  feet  thick,  never  more  than  eight,  and  never  less  than  four  feet,  except 
where  terminating.  The  general  and  almost  uniform  color  is  a  pale 
dingy  yellow.  The  few  shells  remaining  arc  not  perceptible  without 
careful  observation,  and  the  whole  mass,  when  dug  down  for  use.  is 
scarcely  distinguishable  from  many  common  and  barren  sub-soils,  or  clay 
river  cliffs,  of  like  color.  Two  ;!an  but  continuous  aud  separate  layers  of 
almost  stony  hardness  extend  through  the  whole  bed-^hese  contain  from 
'JO  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime,  and  may  be  burnt  to  excellent 
quick-lime  for  cement.  The  marl  intervening  with  these  hard  layers  is  simi- 
lar to  them  in  color  and  general  appearance:  but  is  quite  soft  and  mellow 
in  handling,  and  in  that  respect  differs  from  all  other  known  marls.  The 
very  uniform  calcareous  proportion  of  this  part  is  about  53  per  cent. ;  and 
taking  an  equal  section  of  the  whole  thickness  of  the  bed,  and  with  the 
greatest  care  to  obtain  a  fair  average  sample,  the  strength  in  carbonate  of 
lime  was  found  to  be  &2  per  cent.  This  is  far  less  of  calcareous  matter  than 
is  contained  by  many  miocene  marls  which  show  less  effect  than  this  as 
manure.  But  besides  its  calcareous  matter,  this  eocene  marl  has  some  little 
gypsum,  some  kind  of  saline  matter  which  cattle  are  fonJ  of  licking,  (be- 
lieved to  be  sulphate  of  alumina,)  and  some  amount  of  the  granules  of  "  green- 
sand" — and  more  of  this  than  most  of  the  miocene  marls.  The  other 
earth  of  this  marl  is  mostly  of  yellowish  clay,  and  composed  more  of  argil- 
laceous than  silicious  matter.  I  confess  that  all  these  additional  ingredients, 
together,  do  hot  seem  to  me  sufficient  to  account  for  the  superiority  which 
this  marl  exhibits  as  manure. 

Though  this  peculiar  kind  of  marl  was  so  early  known,  and  its  value 
appreciated,  and,  though  it  underlies  the  whole  of  Coggins  Point,  yet  it  is 
covered  there  so  deeply  by  the  overlying  earth,  and  is  therefore  so  difficult 
to  work  extensively,  and.  moreover,  is  so  distant  from  the  main  body  of 
the  farm,  that  this  has  not  been  applied  to  more  than  05  acres,  out  of 
some  700  marled  on  that  farm.  Other  proprietors  have  elsewhere  made 
much  more  extensive  applications  of  this  marl.  The  peculiar  effects  of  this 
kind  of  marl  were  tested  with  the  most  accuracy  by  Messrs.  Collier  H.  Ming*, 
then  of  Walnut  Hill,  and  Hill  Carter,  of  Shirley;  both  of  whom  used  this 
marl  from  Coggins  Point,  water-borne  to  distances  of  12  and  15  miles. 
Though  the  marl  was  given  to  thorn,  (in  the  bed.)  it  was  yet  very  costly  in 
the  labor  of  digging  and  transportation;  and  therefore  they  used  it  with 
strict  economy,  and  carefully  estimated  the  results.  But  highly  as  they 
both  thought  of,  and  have  reported  the  effects,'*  in  comparison  with  either 
lime  or  miocene  marls,  the  expense  and  trouble  were  so  great,  that  it  is 
now  considered  by  the  most  judicious  farmers  on  the  tide  water  rivers,  that 
they  can  better  afford  to  buy  stone-lime,  at  its  present  low  price.  (8  to  10 
cents  the  bushel,)  than  to  transport  marl  of  any  kind  by  water 

Since  the  foregoing  pages  were  written,  I  have  learned  of  two  farther 
exposures  of  this  body  of  eocene  marl.  One  is  four  miles  north  of  Eve- 
lynton, (in  Charles  City  county.)  where  the  marl  was  reached  and  pene- 
trated by  the  digging  of  a  well  in  f814.  At  about  30  feet  deep,  after 
passing  through  the  marl,  and  a  layer  of  rock,  water  was  reached,  which 
rose  to  the  top  of  the  well,  and  continues  to  flow  over,  forming  the  only 
Artesian  well  known  in  this  region.  The  other  locality  is  in  Henrico 
county,  on  Turkey  Island  creek,  its  eastern  boundary,  and  about  S  miles 

•  See  Farmers'  Regist'  r,  vol   v  .  |<p    189!  217.  ">1 1 


f  KlU  HANI  Kl'.s     APPEN1UX  jj  |  [ 

in  lit  I;  of  City  Point.    This  mat  1  I  recognized  to  be  the  same,  by  a  specimen 

rfecentl)  b ghi  mefoi  examination  i  of  swampy 

id,  and  is  colored  .lark  gray.  K  is  much  fuller  ol  green-sand,  and 
indeed  m  thai  respei  i  makes  some  approach  i"  the  green-sand  mails  ol  the 
Pamunkey,  of  which  the  nearest  exposure  is  only  16  miles  from  this  place, 

li  is  probable  that  the  ma  m  the  place  in  the 

other,  ami  may  be  found  throughout  the  interval  by  deep  di 

((.')  THE  liyPSEOUS  EAKTH   OH  UKEEN  EAUTI1  OF  JAMES  RIVER. 

Before  pro  consider  the  next  and   (ml)'   remaining    known 

variety  "i  our  marls,  the  eocene  green-sand  mail,  ii  is  necessary  to  treal  in 
advance  and  separately  ol  the  peculiar  earthy'  compound,  called  "green 
sand"' by  geological- writers,  ol  which  the  large  admixture,  and  sometimes 
own  larger  proportion,  gives  additional  value, and  peculiar  character  and 
action  to  the  greater  number  and  quantity  ol  the  eocene  marls  yet  known. 
But  important  and  valuable  as  may  lie  tin-  green-sand  in  itself,  ami  ii 
sary  to  be  considered  in  connexion  with  the  subject  ol  eocene  marl,  with 
which  it  is  so  inseparably  connected,  I  wish  especially  to  avoid  confounding 
tin-  tun  earths  under  one  name  in  nut-  character;  and  to  be  understood  as 
protesting  against  the  prevalent  error,  in  giving  currency  to  which  scientific 
writers  have  concurred  with  the  unlearned  cultivators,  of  applying  to  the 
non-calcareous  green-sand  earth  the  name  ol  •■marl,"  and  thus  adding  ano- 
ther, and  the  must  important  one,  to  the  previous  misapplications  of  this 
wonderfully  misused  and  misunderstood  term.  This  misapplication  is  uni- 
versal in  New  Jersey,  where  the  green-sand  earth  is  must  abundant,  and  is 
generally  Very  rich  in  its  distinguishing  ingredient,  (usualfy'containing  75 
to  90  |»r  cent  of  pure  green-sand—;  and  where  tins  earth  has  been  long, 
and  is  now  extensively  used  as  a  manure,  ami  has  been  found  to  beoi 
great  value  as  a  fertilizer.  1  shall  hereafter  refer  to  both  the  points  of  re- 
semblance and  ol  diiierenee  (both  ol  which  are  important  and  interesting) 
earth  "I  New  Jersey  and  that  of  James  river;  but,  for 
the  present,  my  remarks  will  he  confined  to  tin'  latter,  and  its  use  8 
nine,  as  Known  principally,  and  indeed  almost  entirely,  Inan  my  own 
observations  and  practical  ]  perience,  there  having  as  yet  been  but  lew 
trials  ol   it  made  by  other  persons. 

It  was  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  section,  thai  the  first  notice  or  obser- 
vation of  the  eocene  mail  mi  James  river  was  induced  by  the  previous 
discovery  and  examination  of  the  green  or  gypseous  earth— the  latter 
being  the  universal  underlying  bed  ,,|  the  formed  ami  connected  with  it  in 
more  respects  than  merely  its  subjacent  position.  It  was  my  chance,  or 
the  result  of  habits  of  observation  of  marls  and  other  earths,  and  not  of 
any  scientific  knowledge  or  previous  preparation  for  such  investigations, 
which  led  me,  in  1617,  to  be  the  first  to  observe  this  bed  of  green  earth  in 
the  river  banks  of  Evergreen  and  Ooggins  Point, .and  to  trace  il  where 
visible  along  the  intermediate  ground,  a  distance  ol  about  eighl  miles. 
Since  then,  it  is  known  to  be  much  more  extended  j  fol  it  not  only  under- 
lies all  the  eocene  marl  of  the  same  neighbor! I.  wherever  thai  is  found, 

and  part  of  the  yellow  sandy  mipcene,  but  also  extend  nd  is 

found  at  various  places  where  n cene or  even  miocene  mail  is  [bund 

The  most  western  limit,  seen  after  a  tence 

of  this  formation,  is  at  Petersburg,  where  it  shows  in  the  ravines  south  ol 
Poplar  Lawn. 

What   first  directed    my  attention  to  this  earth  was   the  existence  in   the 


vi].2  CALl 

river  bank  at  Evergreen,  (the  place  of  my  birth,  and  of  residence  in 
life.)  of  curiously  shaped  and  beautiful  crystals,  which  subsequently  1  learned 
were  selenite  or  gypsum.     The  like  i  ich  smaller  in  size, 

1  soon  after  found  in  different  places  at  i  'qggins  Point,  nij-  own  farm  and 
then  residence.  .And,  in  making  examinations  for  this  purpose,  I  observed 
that   wherevi  sum  could  be  is  always  in  a  peculiar 

kind  of  earth,  which,  though  varying  much  in  appearance  in  diffeicnt  places 
and  at  different  elevations  at  the  same  place,  yet  possessed  characteristic 
marks  by  which  it  could  be  easily  distinguished  from  all  others.  This 
was  the  earth  in  question.     For  want  of  a  more  appropriate 

name,  I  at  first  a  rm  •■  </ypsei  lis  deposite;  and 

though  1  subsequently  abandoned  this  name  in  (undeserved)  deference 
to  scientific  authority,  ancLjbave  used  instea  later  publications,  the 

name  "green-sand  earth,"  1  now  believe  that  my  original  term  (in  refer- 
ence to  the  more  general  and  universal  manuring  qualities)  was  the  better 
of  the  two,  for  reasons  which  will  appear  in  the  course  of  these  remarks. 
And  besides  that  "green-sand  earth"  is  inconvenient  for  its  length,  it  is  not 
truly  descriptive  ;  for  the  entire  granules  from  which  the  peculiar  character 
of  the  earth  is  derived,  are  not  green,  but  black  superficially,  or«o  appear; 
nnd  are  not   what   is  usually  understood  as  i      texture  are  like 

fine  and  unctuous  clay.  Still  worse  is  it  to  term  the  whole  mass,  "green- 
sand,"  as  is  usually  done,  when  the  pure  "  green-sand,"  even  if  that  were 
properly  named,  may  not  form  one  fourth  or  even  one  tenth  of  the  whole 
mass  of  earth.  1  therefore  would  prefer  for  the  deposite,  and  shall  use  in- 
differently, either  my  first  designation  of  gypseous  earth,  or  the  name  of 
earth,  which  latter  is  convenient,  is  sufficiently  descriptive,  and 
moreover  affirms  nothing  except  as  to  the  color,  which  is  generally  manifest 
in  the  whole  mass,  and,  if  not,  is  certainly  so  in  the  separated  and  mashed 
granules,  which  distinguish  the  earth. 

As  the  lower  part  of  the  river  bank  is  mostly  exposed  and  kept  bare  by 
the  frequent  washing  by  the  waves  driven  by  strong  winds  and  high  tides, 
the  bed  of  gypseous  earth  can  be  easily  traced  through  nearly  its  whole 
course  along  the  river  side.  As  thus  expose:!  to  view,  it  has  generally  a 
green  color,  most  frequently  intermixed  and  mottled  with  smaller  streaks 
and  spots  of  bright  yellow'.  The  earth,  as  seen  firm  in  the  bank,  and  with 
a  smooth  washed  surface,  might  be  supp  ed  to  be  somewhat  of  a  clay; 
but,  on  handling  it,  and  breaking  down  a  lump,  its  texture  is  more  like 
sand;  as  indeed  a  large  proportion  of  the  mass  is  silicious  sand.  A  very 
general  distinguishing  mark  of  this  earth  is  its  containing  numerous  hollow 
impressions  of  eocene  shells,  of  which  the  forms  remain  perfect,  though 
neither  the  shells  themselves  nor  any  portion  of  their  calcareous  substance 
remain,  as  the  earth  in  this  part,  and  where  most  generally  seen,  contains 
not  a  particle  of  carbonate  of  iime.  Among  the  yelloy  spots  there  are  also 
other  small  spots  and  streaks  of  reddi 

and  unctuous  to  the  touch.  The  blight  yellow  clay  is  doubtless  largely 
impregnated  with  iron,  or  is  a  true  yellow  ochre.  Though  soft  within  the 
bed,  this  yellow  ochre  hardens  when  exposed  to  trie  air  o*h  the  outside,  and 
■  ven  when  under  water.  .Many  of  'the  yellow  spots  made  by  this  ochre, 
as  seen  on  the  surface  of  a  smooth  section  of  the- bed.  have  a  rough  resem- 
blance to  the  shape  of  sections  of  bivab  and  these  coagApted  with 
the  general  green  ground,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  coIore*being  dif- 
ferent, give  to  such  a  section  of  the  bank  somewhat  the  appearance  of  the 
beautiful  black  marbles  US'  S  for  mantel-pieces,  in  which  the  white 
traces  of  what  were  formerly  shells  show  throughout.  In  some  places  near 
to  and  below  the  beach,  the  earth  is  seen   much  darker  colored,  indeed   is 


L  RECTUS  MANl  RES-   APPENDIX.  213 

almost  black  when  moist  in  the  bank,  though  more  of  dark  green  when 
dry.  is  awing  to  the  green  granules  being  present  in 

larger  quantity;  and  generally,  if  nol  always,  the  lower  part  of  trie  lied  of 
earth  is  richer  in  that  Ingredient  than' the  upper.  The  empty  impressions 
which  were  II  found  in  penetrating  bejow; 

but  as  the  deptli  increases,  then  «  hole 

shells.  ,  and  the  parts  having  ai  y  coherence. 

Still,  generally,  even  below,  where  these  shells  are  most  abundant,  their 
quantity  would  not  furnish  as  much  as  two  per  cent.,  and  generally  not  one 
per  cent.,  to  the  .'mate 

of  lime,  though  of  course  useful  in  proportion  to  its  quantity,  can  give  no 
,  lition  of  value  to  the  mass  as  manure. 

Here  and  there,  but  rarely,  in  the  upper  and  dry  part  of  this  bed,  crystals 

as  to  be  barely  distinguishable 
by  the  eve.  In  the  lower  ami  wet  part,  gypsum  is  never -visible!  but  it 
is  nevei  1 

But  the  and  most  characteristic  mark  ol  the  green  earth  is 

present  in  the  black  gran  'which  give  color  to  the 

To  ascerti  in  I  mple  of 

nth   or  marl  D   them   be  dried,  and   then   crumbled 

between  the  fingei  hard  for  that,  by  being  rubbed  in  a  mortar, 

not  too  finely  arid  closely.     Then  take  a  pinch  of  between  the 

thumb  and  linger,  and  sprinkle  it  very  thinly  over  a  piece  of  white  paper. 
If  any  of  the  separated  grains  appear  black,  (or  green,)  mash  one  of  them 
with  1  knife;  and    if  fl  be  " green-sand,"  the 

granule  will  1  a  id  make  a  vivid  greet]  smear. 

greater  accuracy,  [et  the  earth  well  washed  by  agitation 

in  water,  and  pou  c  matters  which  will 

in  longer  suspended  in  the  fluid.     The  grains  of.  green-sand  will  then 
be  left  with  nothin  12  or  silicious  sand,  and  moreover  the 

former  will  he  made  more  pero  nee  of  being  cleared  by 

the  washing  of  any  previi 

My   first  published  account  'in  or  about   the 

year    1828,    in   the    old   series  of   t  n    1  aimer.'      A    much 

more  extended  article    "(  n   the   Gyps is  Earth  of  James  River,"  I 

afterwards  published,  July.  1833,  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Farmers' Re- 
inning  at  page  207.  Though  up  to  that  time  1  had  never  so 
much  as  heard  of  the  term  "green-eand,"  and  though  J  adopted  and  used 
the  new  and  unauthorized  designation  of  "gypseous  earth,"'  the  earth  in 
questioil  was  described  so  minutely  and  accurately  thai  it  was  impossible 
for  any  intelligent  and  attentive  reader  of  the  article,  and  subsequent  ob- 
server "i  the  kind  of  earth  in  question,  to  mistake  the  subject  of  descrip- 
tion. I  trust  that  I  may  be  pardoned  for  thus  specifying  my  claim  to  the 
first  discovery  of  this  earth  in  Virginia,  inasaaieh  as  that  meril  (n  il 
one)  would  be  ascribed  by  every  otherwise  uninformed  reader,  of  the  fits! 
report  of  the  -mvcjfof  Virginia,  a  the  publica- 

tions from  tl  ore,  to  the  author  of  these  pieces     Upon  this 

Occasion,  it  would  be  improper  to  say  mure  oil  this  question  than  thus  con- 
cisely and  explicitly  t"  assert  my  just  rights. 

Before  pjooeedim:  '"  "'i''1  '<'''  paore  precise  and  re  valuable  informa- 
tion concernfi  1  very  recent  investigations,  K  wiJI  be 
proper  to  state  aqpething  of  th  ind  changes  ol  opinion  on  this 
subject,  which  operated  at  different  times  either  to  encourage  or  to  obstruct 
the  use  of  this  earth  as  manure. 

From  1818  to  I  .   numerous  trials,  and  in  some  cases 

27 


214  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX 

extensive  applications  of  the  Coggins  Foint  gypseous  earth  as  manure. 
The  results  of  my  general  practice,  and  also  of  man)-  particular  experi- 
ments noted  at  the  times  when  made,  were  reported  in  a  communication 
to  the  Farmers' Register,  commencing  at  page  US,  vol.  ix.  The  effects 
stated  were  very  different  and  apparently  contradictory — sometimes  bene- 
ficial and  profitable  in  a  remarkable  degree,  but  more  generally  of  little 
value,  or  of  no  benefit  whatever.  The  inferences  which  I  drew  from  all 
my  experience,  (and  there  existed  scarcely  any  other  facts  or  experiments,) 
were  that  this  earth  as  manure  acted  in  the  same  manner  as  gypsum, 
though  more  powerfully— and  in  no  uther  maimer  than  as  gypsum  would 
under  like  circumstances;  that  like  gypsum,  on  my  land  certainly,  and  as 
I  inferred  in  our  tide-water  region  generally,  this  earth  had  no  effect  what- 
ever (unless  used  in  excessive  quantity)  on  any  acid  soils -and  rarely  on 
any  other  crop  than  clover,  even  when  properly  applied  on  neutral  or 
calcareous  soils;  and  that  when  naturally  acid  soils  were  made  calcareous 
by  being  marled,  this  green  earth  then  became  generally  operative  thereon 
as  a  manure  for  clover,  (and  for  other  plants  o(  the  clover  or  pea  tribe,) 
in  the  same  manner  as  is  usual  in  regard  to  gypsum.*  And  though  the 
effects,  when  any  were  produced,  were  greater  than  those  of  any  usual  or 
known  dressings  of  gypsum,  and  sometimes  in  a  very  remarkable  degree, 
still  the  failures  and  disappointments  •were  so  many  that  I  did  not  deem  the 
practice  worth  being  continued.  In  1341,  my  son,  the  present  occupant  of 
the  Coggins  Point  farm,  at  my  request,  recommenced  the  applications  of 
gypseous  earth,  for  experiment :  and  on  the  clover  of  this  year,  1>4'2,  he 
has  extended  the  dressings  over  more  than  60  acres.f  The  results  were, 
as  in  former  years,  very  unequal,  and  for  the  greater  space  of  ground 
covered,  unprofitable,  and  barely  if  at  all  perceptible.  But  on  25  to  30 
acres  the  benefit  was  remarkably  great,  and  in  some  cases  (of  summer  dress- 
ings) improvement  was  obvious  within  ten  days  after  the  application.  But 
what  was  most  interesting  in  the  results  was,  that  a  clue  seemed  to  be  there- 
by furnished  to  explain  the  frequent  previous  failures  of  this  manure,  even 
when  applied  to  clover  growing  on  neutral  or  calcareous  soil,  which  are 
the  only  circumstances  in  which  it  has  ever  been  found  profitable  in  practice. 
My  former  applications  had  been  generally  made  from  the  upper  and 
greener  stratum  of  the  gypseous  earth,  (designated  in  a  succeeding  page 
as  C,)  or  if  from  the  lower  and  blacker  part,  (£>,)  the  digging  did  not  pene- 
trate more  than  a  foot,  or,  at  most  and  rarely,  two  feet  below  the  before 
exposed  outer  surface.  But  in  the  recent  larger  operation,  the  digging 
(made  on  the  river  beach)  was  so  much  more  extensive  as  to  furnish  earth 
from  depths  of  three  or  four  feet,  a's  well  as  of  portions  nearer  to  and  at 
the  surface.  I  ascribed  the  remarkable  differences  of  effect  to  the  kind 
and  place  of  the  earth ;  inferring  that  the  exposed  parts,  and  all  perhaps 
near  the  surface,  had,  by  exposure  to  air  or  water,  lost  a  large  proportion 
of  the  soluble  or  decomposable  fertilizing  ingredients.  As  the  applications 
had  not  been  made  with  any  view  to  this  question,  the  experiments  are 
not  to  be  deemed  as  conchisive.and  the  correctness  of  this  inference  is  yet  to 
be  fairly  tested  by  future  experiments.  But  the  benefits  from  some  of  the 
dressings,  and  all  of  those  supposed  to  be  from  the  deeper  digging,  were 
so  great,  and  so  speedily  produced,  that  renewed  and  strong  interest  was 

*  See  these  views  more  fully  set  forth  in  the  article  above  referred  to,  and  also  in  an 
other  on  the  greensr.nd  marls  of  Pamunkey,  at  pp.  679  and  600,  vol.  viii.  Fanners' 
Register. 

t  See  the  facts  and  results  staled  in  two  communications  to  Farui.  -rs"  Register  pp.  S6, 
185  and  252,  vol.  x. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES      UTKMllX  ^  1  5 

excited  in  regard  to  this  manure.     The  quantity  applied  was  generally  40 

bushels  "i  the  earth  to  the  acre.    And  this  quantity  see I,  (from  an  accu- 

rate  comparative  experiment)  to  produce  as  much  benefit  sis  200  bushels. 
The  growth  ol  clover  was  increased  In  degrees  varying  from  loo  to  o00 
per  cent  And  where  the  application  was  most  successful,  the  increase  and 
profit  were  sufficient  to  compensate  the  expense,  even  I  iirther 

benefit  shall  be  found  than  in  this  one  crop— or  that  a  new  application  shall 
he  required  and  he  made  for  every  succeeding  crop  of  clover,  or  once  in 
each  round  of  the  rotation   of  crops. 

An  observation  made  by  accident  last  sfiMng  led  to  further  chemical  as 
well  as  other  examinations  ol  this  earth,  and  to  important  results.  Upon 
heating  a  lump  of  it  to  red  heat,  I  found  that  strong  fumes  were  thereby 
extricated,  which  were  almost  suffocating  if  inhaled  incautiously.  The 
odor  was  manifestly  sulphureous  in  part,  and  principally;  hut  it  seemed 
not  altogether  so,  but  to  he  mixed  with  some  other,  much  like  that  of  mu- 
riatic acid  gas.  similar  trials  were  made  on  many  specimens,  and  all  the 
darker  and  I    richer  layers  of  the  green  earth  at  <  'oggins  Point 

showed  the  like  result.  From  specimens  of  the  upper  and  lighter  green 
stratum  (C)  when  heated  red,  there  was  nothing  of  this  suffocating  odor 
produced.  And  it  pay  be  useful  t->  state  here,  in  anticipation  of  subjects  to 
be  hereafter  more  filly  considered,  that  I  subsequently  found  that  the  New 
teen-sand  earths  yielded  n<  t  a  p  irticle  of  this  gaseous  product. 

i  far  as  il   \  ous,  was  obviously  the  product  of 

the  decomposition  (by  red  heat)  of  sulphuret  of  iron — which  was  thus  proved 
to  be  universally  diffused,  though  invisible,  trirougli  all  the  darker  and  bet- 
ter kinds  of  this  earth.  Sulphur  would  haye  shown  like  results,  with  a 
much  less  degree  of  heat ;  but  it  could  not  be  that,  because  the  heat  suffi- 
cient to  decompose  sulphur  (and  to  evolve  its  ftfmi  effect  on  the 
earth,  1  also  sarth  after  having  been  applied  as 
manure,  and  exp  ised  on  the  surface  of  the  ground  for  some  months,  often 
had  a  smell  of  sulphur;  and.  in  some  cases,  the  same  effect  was  exhibited 
in  specimens  taken  from  the  diggings,  and  kept  dry.  The  sulphuret  of 
iron,  if  universally  present,  would,  by  its  decomposition  in  contact  with 
carbon  (as  when  on  calcareous  land,)  Ibrm  sulphate  of  lime, 
gypsum.)  a  s6urce"for  the  universal  supply  of  that  manure 
to  some  extent.  Further,  Mr.  M.  Tuomey  had  found  sulphate  of  lime 
ready  finned  in  specimens  of  wet  earth  which  I  supposed  the  least  likely  to 
retain  that  Ingredient — and  thus  was  indicated  another  general  supply  of 
gypsum. 

The  increased  interest  excited  by  these  new  observations,  and  also  the 
new  views  as  to  the  cause  of  the  failures  of  mosl  'if  the  former  applications 
■  if  this  manure,  induced  the  sulking  of  a  pit  in  the  gypseous  earth,  on  the 
river  beach  at  Cogging  Point;  to  the  depth  of  1J  feet  below  ordinary  high 
tide.  This  digging  for  the  lower  13  feel  was  in  a  very  compact  and  fine 
clay  (/J)  or  clay  marl,  as  it  would  have  been  designated  in  England,  from  Its 
texture  and  sensible  qualities,  but  which  contained  ho  visible  or  apparent 
fertilizing  ingredient,  except  a  very  small  spri  d  elsewhere 

little  sulphuret  of  iron  in  small  lumps  and  In  minute  crystals,  visible 
ill  a  few  detached  spots  only.  The  appearances  promise.!  so  little  of  value 
or  remuneration,  (and  less  so  as  the  digging  was  sunk  lower,)  that  the 
work  was  suspended.  But  the  blacker  earth  above  {!))  and  also  the  clay 
(£.')  were  carried  out  for  experiment  on  clover.  May  'JOth,)  of  which  the 
first  crop  bad  just  been  grazed  off  closely,  and  the  cattle  removed.  As  the 
season  was  so  far  advanced,  and  benefit  so  little  counted  on,  the  covering 
was  made  heavier  than  in  the  winter  and  early  spring  before  (and  of  which 


216 


CALCAREOUS  MANL'K!  -     APPENDIX 


the  full  benefit  had  been  already  seen  on  the  first  or  spring  crop  of  cloi 
100  bushels  of  the  upper  and  better  earth,  and  150  of  the  clay,  being  ap- 
plied to  the  acre.  A  good  rain  fell  the  next  night ;  and  in  less  than  ten 
days  there  were  visible  and  manifest  beneficial  effects  from  both  kinds  of 
earth,  hut  better  from  the  upper  — which  effects  increased  to  fully  the  doub- 
ling of  the  growth  by  the  first  of  August.  The  hard  lumps  of  the  compact 
clay  soon  split  and  crumbled  when  exposed  to  the  air,  and  even  without 
rain.  The  remarkable  benefits  of  these  applications  induced  the  resuming 
of  the  digging,  and  another  and  much  deeper  pit  was  dug  as  early  as  the 
other  labors  of  the  farm  permitte  1.  and  a  statement  will  presently  be  made 
of  the  section  thereby  exposed.  But  previous  to  this,  it  is  proper  to  de- 
scribe another  like  operation,  and  its  results,  at  a  more  interesting  locality. 
The  same  general  appearance  of  the  gypseous  earth,  and  mostly  of  the 
poorer  kind  of  greenish  color  mottled  with  pale  yellow  clay,  is  exhibited  all 
along  the  river  bank  of  Coggins  Point  and  the  lands  above,  to  the  Ever- 
green farm— interrupted  only  by  the  parts  of  marshy  or  more  ancient  allu- 
vial lands  ;  or  where  the  stratum  has  been  broken  and  concealed  by  the 
ancient  land-slips  which  have  greatly  altered  the  original  levels  and  form  of 
the  surface  of  that  whole  stretch  of  land  bordering  on  the  river  and  overlying 
the  green  earth  formation.  This  operation  by  the  land  slipping  and  sinking 
continues,  and  some  new  effects  are  seen  every  year.  At  man}'  places 
along  this  stretch  gypsum  is  perceptible  in  the  green  earth,  either  in  crys- 
tals or  in  powder,  and  sometimes,  and  rarely,  in  considerable  proportion, 
say  from  5  to  15  percent,  of  the  whole  mass.  At  the  upper  part  of  the 
river  line  of  the  Evergreen  farm,  (at  the  mouth  of  Bayley's  creek,  and  two 
miles  below  City  Point,)  the  river  bank  has  peculiar  and  remarkable  fea- 
tures, which  deserve  particular  notice.  It  was  here  in  1617  that  I  first  dis- 
covered this  green  earth  formation,  and  thence  traced  it  to  my  own  farm 
and  then  residence,  Coggins  Point,  and  elsewhere  in  that  neighborhood. 

ihe  lower  visible  part  of  the  body  of  green-sand  earth  at  Evergreen  is 
laid  bare  by  the  wasting  inroads  of  the  river,  (by  which  it  is  rapidiy  wash- 
ing away,)  for  200  yards  in  length.-  The  southern  or  upper  extremity,  for 
some  20  yards,  approaches  nearly  in  appearance  to  the  general  character 
of  tr.e  upper  stratum  before  described.  But  all  the  remainder  is  different, 
and  much  richer  in  the  dark  or  green  granules  than  generally  elsewhere. 

Since  this  article  was  commenced,  Capt.  H.  H.  Cocke,  the  present  pro- 
prietor of  Evergreen,  at  my  suggestion  and  request,  had  a  shaft  dug  tor 
examination,  which,  with  an  extension  of  my  own  after  he  had  ceased 
his  operations,  added  to  the  natural  and  higher  exposure  of  the  section,  27 
feet  below  the  beach,  and  25  below  common  high  tide.  The  several  strata 
of  the  whole  section,  and  their  variations,  will  be  described  in  their  descend- 
ing order. 

At  top — 
1st.  Surface  soil  (sloping  back  irregularly  to  the  table  land,  which  is  much 
higher,)  on  (2d)  gravelly  and  sandy  sub-soil,  pervious  to  water,  of  various 
depths— lying  on  strata  nearly  all  horizontal.     Xext, 
10  feet  of  yellow  sandy  miocene  mail. 

8  feet  of  yellowish  clay,  (supposed  eocene,)  intermixed  throughout  with 
very  small  crystals  and  powder  of  sulphate  of  lime— the  clay  not  com- 
pact or  solid,  but  open  and  loose  throughout.  (Query :  Is  not  this  the 
equivalent  of  the  eocene  marl  at  Coggins  Point,  with  its  former  shells 
and  carbonate  of  lime  completely  changed  to  sulphate  of  lime,  and  the  re- 
mainder dissolved  and  lost !) 
5  feet  of  gypseous  earth — the  general  color,  green  mottled  and  streaked 
with  yellow  ochre,  and  full  throughout  of  very  minute  crystals  of  sulphate 


OUi    M  \  M  :  JKIX.  g  17 

of  lime,  supposed  to  be  about  10  to  15  per  cent,  of  the  whole  mass.     No 
sts  seen  in  the  part  expos  amination. 

ivnish  iiu  tiled  <  I  ty,  feeling  smooth  and  soapy,  containing  bu- 
dl  crystals  of  sulphate  of  lima 
9  feet  very  pure  white  clay  or  fuller's-earth,  in  horizontal  layers,  separated 
by  veins  of  the  yellow  day  Cor  iron  ochre)  before  mentioned,  other  veins 
of  the  same  sometimes  also  inclined  and  crossing  the  horizontal  veins — 
the  outsides  of  the  lumps  of  clay  colored  by  oxide  of  iron.  The  clay 
all  broken  into  irregular  lumps,  as  if  the  fissures  had  been  formed  by  the 
contraction  in  dr  I  with  wetness.    No  shells, 

nor  appearance  of  them,  but"  many  pure  and  transparent  and  beautiful 
ervst  tls  of  sulphate  of  lime  here  and  there,  some  weighing  several 
ounces.     This  stratum  changing  gradually  into  the  next  of 

of  dark  bluish  clay,  the  coloring  matter  being  green-sand,  mottled 
with  irregular  streaks  oi  bright  jteHow,  becoming  brown  below  where 
oozing  water  begins  to  show  and  is  reddish  with  sulphate  of  iron,  or 
other  ferruginous  ilution.    This  stratum  full  of  large  and  solid 

■  t  Us  of  sulphate  of  lime,  amounting  apparently  to  from  25  to  35  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  mass— the  crystals  colored  dark  gray,  because  of  some 
Impurities  in  small  grains  (green-sand I)  being  enclosed  and  diffused 
through  them.    .No  shells.    This  changing  into  the  next,  of 

I  1  fei  I  irk  or  nearly  black  clay,  nearly  uniform  color,  and  still 

compart  texture,  and  feeling  smooth  and  soapy— with  very  few  crystals, 
I  much  less  sulphate  of  lime  than  the  rj  ;ii  many  small  and 

scattered  eocene  white  shells,  quite  rotten,  and,  being  moist,  as  soft  as 
dough.  The  shells,  mostly  several  kinds  of  very  large  turritellas.  Fewer 
shells  as  descending:  At  top  of  the  stratum  some  large  and  very  perfect 
specimens  of  the  ,,..■/,-,,,  compreuiro»ird.(i)  To  level  of  the  river  at  com- 
mon high  tide. 
Below  high  tide. 
14  feet  very  similar  to  the  last,  the  shells  very  few  for  the  greater 
part,  but  increasing  near  the  next.  No  crystals  or  other  sulphate  of  lime 
visible.  The  green-sand  granules  coarser— sometimes  in  small  lumps 
quite  pure,  or  unmixed  with  any  thing  else.  These  granules  breaking 
easily,  though  as  if  bard  ol  like  a  soft  soapy  clay  as  usual 

—though  as  green  as  before.  Many  small  cylindrical  tubes  seen,  which 
seem  to  be  formed  on,  or  coated  with  pure  green-sand  in  mass  and  green 
in  color,  and  the  hollows  filled  with  black  granules. 

I I  feet  of  shells  lying  generally  close  together,  and  serving  to  make  the 
whole  stratum  a  calcareous  marl,  of  perhaps  30  per  cent,  or  more  of  carbo- 
nate of  lime— the  earth  filling  the  shells  and  between  them  being  the 
same  black  earth,  as  rich  as  before  in  green-sand.  At  top,  some  very 
large  and  perfect  shells  of  ■'>•</,  and  another  much 
thicker  ostrtu,  not  known.*  The  shells  mostly  very  large  turrilcllfB  of 
different  species— near  bottom  fewer  of  these  and  mostly  craaaatdUt, 
The  shells  nearly  as  numerous  as  before,  at  this  depth,  at" which  the  dig- 
ging  was  abandoned,  at  25  feet  below  tide. 

The  whole  section,  from  the  top  of  the  highest  undoubted  eocene 
stratum  to  where  the  digging  ceased,  (without  any  indication  of  being 
near  the  end,)  is  01  feet — and  if  the  clay  and  gypsum  stratum  below  the 

•  One  of  these  last  (both  valves)  weighed  5  Ib-e     Mr.   M    Tuomey,  to  vvhcsc  much 

better  informal  ion  oi  irge  and  heavy 

shell  jtressirvstra  <-'(  id  growth.     If  so,  however,  it  is  cer- 

ininly  very  different  in  api>.  II,  as  usually  seen  higher  up  in  this 

u  when  wuli  r  than  'h*  very  'hick  and  heavy  ostrea 


213  CALCAUEOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX 

miocene  be  added,  which,  though  not  certain,  I  believe  to  be  eocene, 
there  would  be  69  feet.  And  if  this  and  the  two  other  lower  clay  strata 
be  deducted,  there  will  still  remain  45  feet  of  strata  exposed,  all  rich  in 
green-sand,  anil  of  it  9  feet  very  rich  also  in  suiphate  of  lime  or  gypsum, 
and  1 1  feet  moderately  rich  in  carbonate  of  lime.  Such  a  deposite  is 
well  worth  the  examination  of  geologists  and  chemists,  and  the  trial  of 
farmers. 

It  was  remarkable  that  at  this  place  only  of  all  the  usual  strata  of  all  the 
then  known  deposites  of  green-sand  or  eqcene  marl  in  Virginia,  were  found 
exposed,  the  shells  of  the  ostrea  eompressirpstfa — and  below  tide  the  other 
before  unknown  and  very  thick  and  heavy  ostrea;  and  that  at  this  place 
there  has  jiot  been  found  a  single  shell  of  either  the  ostrea  sellmformis  or 
cardita  planicosta,  the  latter  of  which  is  so  abundant  through  all  other 
known  eocene  deposites,  and  the  former  in  the  calcareous  eocene  elsewhere. 
These  facts  seemed  to  indicate  (a?  well  as  the  general  dip  to  the  eastward,) 
that  the  strata  at  Evergreen  are  much  more  elevated  than  the  same  at 
Coggins  Point — and  that  by  digging  deeper,  the  lower  and  all  the  strata 
of  the  former  might  be  found  at  other  parts  of  the  known  area  (before  de- 
scribed) of  the  eocene  formation. 

This  inference  added  to  other  considerations  caused  to  be  sunk  the  se- 
cond shaft  above  mentioned  in  the  beach  of  Coggins  Point,  130  yards  dis- 
tant from  the  first  on'e,  which  by  this  time  had  been  filled  completely  by  the 
sand  driven  by  storms  and  high  tides.  The  digging  was  made  at  a  low  part 
of  the  bank,  and  which  therefore  did  not  show  either  the  eocene  marl  or 
the  miocene,  the  former  of  which  is  seen  in  the  higher  bank  at  a  short  dis- 
tance, and  both  together  at  the  distance  of  a  mile.  The  different  strata 
of  the  actual  section  at  the  new  digging,  taken  descending  from  the  top  of 
the  bank,  were  as  follows: 

1  foot,  surface  soil— gray  loam,  ancient  alluvial  deposite. 

7  feet  of  pale  yellow  clay,  containing  much  coarse  silicious  sand. 

4  feet  rounded  or  water- worn  pebbles,  of  all  sizes,  from  4  inches  through 
to  coarse  gravel,  held  together  by  enough  clay  and  ferruginous  earth  to 
fill  the  interstices  between  the  pebbles.     None  calcareous. 

2  feet  of  very  thin  layers  of  hard  and  gritty  gray  clay,  alternating  with 
others  of  coarse  ferruginous  sand. 

2  feet  of  poor  greenish  earth,  more  than  half  the  surface  of  the  section 

brown  in  spots,  and  indurated  with  oxide  of  iron. 

(Here  should  be,  as  elsewhere  in  the  neighborhood,  though  absent  at  this 
particular  locality,  either  one  or  both,  the  miocene  marl,  (A,)  and  next  be- 
low the  eocene  calcareous  marl  (B)  described  in  the  preceding  pages.) 

(C)  9  feet  of  the  ordinary  upper  layer  of  gypseous  earth—green  color,  mot- 
tled with  spots  of  bright  yellow  clay,  (or  ochre,)  and  some  other 
spots  of  unctuous  reddish  brown  clay.  Very  slight  efflorescence  of  gyp- 
sum on  the  surface.  , 

(Z>)  3  feet  of  darker  and  nearly  uniform  color,  almost  black,  from  the  greater 
proportion  of  green-sand.  This  and  the  preceding,  containing  many 
impressions  of  shells,  but  no  shells  or  fragments,  and  no  carbonate  of 
lime.     More  efflorescence  of  gypsum,  and  also  on  next — 

(D)  3  feet  of  same,  except  that  some  shells  are  seen — and  increase  in  the 
next  to  level  of  river  at  common  high  tide. 

(D)  6  feet  of  same  (next  below  tide — )  the  shells  mostly  cardita  planieosta 
—  fewer  of  cytherea  and  corbula.  No  ostrea  or  turritella.  .Small  and 
slender  shark's  teeth  (so  called)  in  perfect  preservation,  the  points  and 
edges  being  as  sharp  as  in  teeth  of  the  living  animal. 

(E)  15  feet  bluish  gray  or  lead-colored  clay,  (from  6  to  22  feet  below  tide,) 


CALCARE0U8  MANUKES     APPENDIX,  o  ]  g 

having  nearly  the  texture  ol  clay  mail.  Very  compact  and  firm  in  tex- 
ture  —  unctnoua  to* the  touch,  but  not  adhesive  or  tough  -  does  not  bend 
to  pressure,  but  breaks    cuts  smooth,  except  W  or  the  knife 

meets  parts  of  shells,  or  grains  ol  siUcious  Band,  Which,  .is  well  as  gra- 
nules of  greervsnnd,  are1  irregularly  intern  ighout.  The  shells 
very  rotten,  and  flattened  by  pressure.  Somel  ma  ses,  or  tliin 
bands  <>r  regular  rayei  i,  in  quantity  as  descend- 
ing, and  but  few  scon  at  and  below  10  feet  of  this  stratum.  Numerous 
particles  of  mica  throug  nging  gradually  to  next  At  12  to  IS 
feet  of  its  depth,  many  hard  lumps  of  sulphuret  oj  irpn.  The  upper  three 
or  four  feet  of  this  penetrated  by  numerous  hollow  cylinders,  of  an  inch 
or  more  in  diameter,  an, I  in  every  direction— obviously  having  been  bored 
by  shell-fish.  These  hollows  are  filled  by  the  green  earth  of  the  stratum 
above,  which  thus  makes  nearly  half  the  mass.  (This  clay  and  the  layer 
above  (A?)  were  the  kinds  use  1  for  manure  from  the  first  opened  pit.) 
3  feet  (22  to  25  below  tide)  of  brownish  and  more  friable  clay,  intermixing 
at  first  with  the  above.  Green-sand  much  more  abundant  than  in  the 
preceding,  and  partly  in  very  large  granules. 
3i  feet  (25  to  28  below  tide)  of  very  smooth  and  firm  clay,  of  delicate  lilac 
color  at  first,  but  bee  f  as  descending,  until  nearly  white. 
Splits  easily  into  Bakes  like  thick  slate ;  and  still  thinner  lamina;  show 
that  the  earth  was  a  depnsite  in  tranquil  waters.  Thin  flakes  (not 
thicker  than  writing  paper,)  and  sometimes  a  mere  powder  of  pure  sul- 
phuret of  iron  visible  between  many  of  the  layers  of  clay,  and  causing 
them  to  separate  easily.  The  upper  foot  of  this  every  where  penetrated 
by  small  hollow  tubes,  (from  an  eighth  to.  the  third  of  an  inch  in  diame- 
ter,) which  are  filled  by  the  brown  and  green  variegated  earth  of  the 
stratum  above— causing  a  lump  wneh  cut  smooth  to  appear  like  a  con- 
aferate  of*differently"colbred  marbles.  Except  in  I  :s,  no 
green-sand  deposite,  and  no  shelly  matter.  The  sulphuret  of  iron,  which 
is  through  this  Stratum  Visible  in  powder,*  or  thill  layers,  and  above  in 
small  masses  or  lumps,  is  diffused  ftirough  all  the  strata  containing  green 
sand,  except  the  highest  (C)  Through  this  and  the  upper  gray  clay  (E) 
some  small  black  pebbles  seen,  which  appear  as  if  formed  by  melting. 
The  same  found  in  the  eocene  marl.  A  sudden  change  to  the  next- 
Si  feet  (28A  to  31  below  high  tide)  of  remarkably  smooth  and  unctuous, 
but  firm  clay  of  reddish  brown  color,  (or  dull  brick  red,)  and  homoge- 
neous texture  as  well  as  color.  Cuts  as  smooth  as  the  best  hard  soap. 
Deposited  in  thin  laminae,  and  breaks  or  splits  easily  in  straight  lines 
both  in  the  direction  of  the  lamina  and  lengthwise  at  right-angles  to  their 
direction— the  grain  and  fracture  appearing  like  that  of  rotten  wood. 
Across  these  two  directions,  I  i'i  even.  Near  the  bottom 
of  the  richest  gieen  stratum  {!))  there  is  a  barely  perceptible  oozing  of 
water.  All  below  dry,  and  the  two  last  strata  remarkably  dry.  They 
could  not  be  more  so  if  within  three  feet  of  the  surface  of  a  high  knoll. 
1  foot  (31  to  32  below  tide)  of  same  as  the  last  in  texture,  but  of  pale  blue 

color. 
1  foot  (32  to  33  below  tide)  mixture  of  the  last,  in  small  lumps  imbedded  in 
the  next,  as  if  broken  up  by  a  violent  current,  and  deposited  in  rapid  water. 
17  feet  (33  to  49  below  tide,  the  lowest  digging.)  black  earth— richest  in 
green  sand  (supposed  to  be  60  per  cent)  mixed  with  a  i'cw  fragments 
(less  than  2  percent,  on  an  average)  of  shells— mostly  small,  and  all  very 
rotten.  Kinds,  mostly  of  turritella  (some  of  which  are  largOi)  mutyltts 
corlnda  and  crasiatdia.  Many  small  and  a  lev.  large  shells  of  oatrea 
comjpitssirostra  near  top  of  this  .stratum  and  again  near  the  lowest  part, 
where  the  work  was  stopped   by  the   water  rising  from   below 


220  CALCAREOUS  MANURES—  APPENDIX. 

The  whole,  so  far  as  dug,  added  to  the  before  exposed  bank,  amounted 
to  66  feet  of  the  eocene  deposite,  of  which  49  feet  was  below  the  level  i't 
high  tide.  The  last  stratum,  of  which  was  penetrated  17  feet  before  the  rise 
of  spring  water  compelled  the  work  to  be.  discontinued,  was  manifestly  the 
same  with  that  at  Evergreen  which  was  even  with  high  tide  (and  extend- 
ing above  and  below,)  and  which  was  there  25  feet  thick.  It  was.'  a  subject 
of  much  regret,  after  so  much  labor,  that  .the  still  lower  stratum,  full  of 
shells,  could  not  be  reached,  and  which  probably  might  have  been  done  in 
8  feet  more  of  digging.  However/enough  was  done  to  show  that  the  quan- 
tity is  inexhaustible  of  the  layers  richest  in  green-sand,  (whatever  may  be 
that  degree  of  richness,   independent  of  the  other  layers. 

Besides  the  main  object  of  this  laborious  examination  by  digging  as  low 
as  possible,  to  learn  more  of  the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  earth  for  manure, 
and  as  a  matter  of  curiosity,  there  was  another  inducement.  The  whole 
bottom  of  the  river  across  to  Berkley  (below  the  thin  covering  of  loose 
and  soft  mud,)  according  to  its  variation  of  depth,  must  be  formed  of  one 
or  another  of  the  same  layers  shown  in  this  digging  of  49  feet  below  the 
water  level;  and,  of  course,  Harrison's  Bar,  which  lies  between  the  Coggins 
and  Berkley  shores,  must  be  so  formed.  No  earth  more  strongly  resists 
the  washing  action  of  water  than  the  gypseous  earth,  even  when  the  least 
mixed  with  clay.  This  peculiar  quality  must  be  the  cause  of  the  existence 
of  this  bar,  which  presents  so  serious  an  obstacle  to  the  navigation  of  the 
river ;  and  it  may  be  thence  inferred  what  would  be  the  degree  of  difficulty 
of  its  removal,  and  also  that  the  removal  if  effected  would  be  permanent. 

Various  and  contradictory  as  had  been  many  of  the  results  of  my  ex- 
periments of  the  green  earth  as  manure,  there  had  been  perfect  agreement 
in  some  respects.  Thus,  as  before  stated  generally,  the  earth  has  never 
been  beneficial  as  manure  on  acid  soil— but  rarely  on  corn,  and  never 
(directly)  on  any  other  grain  crops;  and  (on  proper  soils)  generally  and 
greatly  beneficial  on  clover,  and  perhaps  all  plants  of  the  clover  and  pea 
tribe— and  the  effects,  when  produced,  have  never  been  permanent,  nor 
even  very  durable.  And  the  effects  shown  in  these  points  of  agreement 
were  nearly  all  the  reverse  of  those  ascribed  to  the  New  Jersey  green- 
sand.  In  regard  to  these  effects,  in  the  absence  of  a!)  certain  and  particular 
information  to  be  obtained  otherwise,  I  found  it  necessary  to  seek  informa- 
tion in  person.  The  results  of  my  inquiries  and  personal  examinations, 
in  general,  showed  that  the  green-sand  (called  marl)  of  New  Jersey,  though 
agreeing  in  some  respects  with  ours  in  action  as  manure,  is  operative  gene- 
rally on  the  greater  number- of  soils  and  on  most  crops,  and  is  also  very  dura- 
ble in  effect.  On  the  other  hand,  much  larger  quantities  are  applied  there, 
(usually  200  bushels,  and  sometimes  400  or  more  to  the  acre)  than  I  have 
done  with  ours ;  and  something  of  the  more  general  benefit,  and  longer 
duration  may  perhaps  be  owing  to  that  circumstance.*  Whether  the  green- 
sand  is  indeed  the  principal,  or  a  very  important  manuring  agent,  of  the 
James  river  earth,  or  whether  the  other  ingredients  may  not  be  still 
more  active  than  its  green-sand,  is  yet  undecided. 

It  is  indeed  strange  that  such  doubts  should  exist  at  this  late  day  as  to 
the  manuring  action  and  effect  of  this  earth— and  still  more  so  that  the 
chemical  composition  and  ingredients  of  the  earth  should  not  have  been 
long  ago  ascertained.  Yet  previous  to  the  recent  imperfect  application  of 
tests  above  referred  to,  there  had  been  no  known  full  or  correct  chemical 
analysis  made  of  the  earth  in  question  ;  nor  even  any  partial  examination 
for  and   report  of  the  ingredients,  that    was   entitled  to   any  respect  for 

•  See  report  at  length  on  the  New  Jersey  gfeen-sand,  and  it?  operation,  at  page  418 
vol.  x.  Farmers'  Register. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX.  22] 

accuracy  and  fidelity.     For  these  reasons,  I  engaged  the  valuab 

of  Professor  C.  U.  Shepard,  for  the  analyses  of  specimens  which  1  selected 

from  the  different  strata  of  the  earth  al  Col    ins  Point,  cxposei 

diggings,  including  several  which  had  been  tried  as  manure  and 

ed  with  remarkable  power  and  benefit.     I  is  report  of  the  analysis,  which 

has  been  received  since  the  preceding  and  subsequent  portions  of  this  article 

were  written,  will  now  be  presented.     It  enables  me  to  furnish  more  of 

what  is  valuable,  because   more  certain  than  every  thing  else  I  could  offer, 

or  than  has  before  been  offered  to  the  public  on  this  subject— prominent  as 

it  has  been  made  in  the  reports  of  the  geological  survey  of  Virginia. 

AVic  Bavm,  October  26, 1842. 
Dear  sir — The  specimens  of  green- saml  and  accompanying  earths  have,  agreeably  to 
your  request,  received  my  particular  attention;  and  I  now  proceed  to  apprise  you  ot  the 
results  at  which  I  have  arrived. 

Commencing  with  the  mechanical  analysis  of  the  green-sand,  I  was  not  a  little  sur- 
prised to  find  (Sat  the  green  particles,  when  cleared  by  washing  of  a  slight  investment  of 
clay,  assumed  the  aspect  of  chlorite  and  green  earth,  and  more  rarely  of  grains  of  ser- 
pentine and  tine  scales  of  mica.  _Thc  other  ingredients  of  the  earth  were  chiefly  grains 
of  quartz,  (some  ol  which  werelptnetrated  by  chlorite,)  and  | ■. ■>  !>.-  pi  gar- 

net, iron  pyrites,  and  what  appeared  to  be  yellow  phosphate  of  lime.     Fragmi 
shells,  in  .i  very  decayed  state,  occui  :i  the  earth;  and  1  detected 

also  small  teeth  and   |  9.     The  propoitions  of  the  leading  ii 

very  difficult  to  establish  with  precision  ;  and  alter  all  my  examinations  1  can  only  give 
them  approximate  Iv  and  within  wide  limits.     Thus,  the  q  -aid  to 

constitute  from  (iO  to  SO  per  cent.,  the  chloritic  and  micaceous  grains  from  10  to  15  per 
cent  ,  and  the  fine  clay  from  3  to  5  percent. 

Nothing  is  plainer  than  that  the  green  particles  possess  the  character  lure  attributed  to 
them;  since  the;  pul  on  all  the  properties  so  common  to  chlorite,  being  sometimes  in 
r  hexagonal  plates,  though  usually  in  little  granuli  a  made  up  of  impalpable  grains, 
which  under  the  pestle  easily  separate,  with   an  oil]  feel,  into  bright  green  specks.    Sub- 
jected to  acids  arid  beat,  it  agrees  with  true  chlorite. 

The  existence  of  such  a  mineral  in  the  present  formation  offers  nothing  remarkable  in 
a  geological  point  of  view,  since  it  may  have  originated  in  the  decomposition  of  chlorite 
slate  rocks,  or  of  veins  in  primitive  rocks  (in  which  chlorite  often  abounds,)  and  in  both 
cases  iron  pyrites  is  its  common  attendant.  Besides,  it  may  have  been  derived  from  the 
metamorphosis  of  pyroxene,  or  from  amyirdaloidal  traps,  a  source  of  green  earth  very 
often  recognized  in  Europe  and  America"  Indeed,  chlorite  (which  is  but  another  name 
for  green  talc)  is  often  interchanged  for  mica  as  an  ingredient  of  primitive  rocks,  and  is 
every  where  little  prone  to  decomposition,  being,  on  tiie  whole,  one  of  the  most  persist- 
ent of  the  simple  minerals. 

Neither  can  it  be  objected  that  its  chemical  constitution  is  incompatible  with  tl 
suits  obtained  for  green  earth  ;  for  here  we  must  hear  in  mind,  also,  that  it  is  impossible 
accurately  to  separate  the  green  particles  from  the  mica,  serp«  ntme  and  other  ingredients 
with  which  they  are  associated. 

M.  Berthier  iound  the  following  composition  in  the  green  grains  from  the  green-sand 
of  Havre  (France) — 

Silica        - 

Protoxide  of  iron         -  -  -  21.00 

Alumina  -----  7  (in 

Potassa  ....  10.00 

Alumina  -----         11.00 

9 

Mr.  Seybert  found  in  that  of  New  Jersey- 
Silica       ... 

Alumina  ....  B.Q0 

Magnesia  ....  1.88 

Potassa  -  -  -  -  '  '  '- 

Water       .  -  .  - 

Protoxide  of  iron         -  - 

Loss  ....  -  89 


100  oot 


•  Geological  Manual,  by  H.  T.  de  la  Beche,  Phila.,  1632,  p.  25fi. 
t  American  Journal  of  Science,  vol.  xvii.,  p.  277. 
28 


222  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

Prof.  Wm.  B.  Rogers  found  in  the  green-sand  of  Virginia- 
Silica        51.70 

Protoxide  of  iron        -  -  -  25.20 

Potassa     -----  10.33 

Water  ....  10. 

Magnesia,  a  trace. 

97.23' 
The  foregoing  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  exhibition  of  the  composition  of  the  green  par- 
ticles in  green-sand  ;  and  the  following  analyses  may  serve  to  show  the  constitution  of 
such  chlorites  and  mica  as  may  be  presumed  to  be  most  analogous  to  the  green  substances 
in  the  earlli  under  consideration. 
M.  Vauqueliu  found  in  the  green-earth  of  Verona — 

Silica 52.00 

Magnesia        ...  -  6.00 

Alumina  -  -  -  -  -  7.00 

Protoxide  of  iron        -  -  -  23.00 

Potassa     -----  7.50 

Water  ....  4.00 

99.50f 
Dr.  Thomson  found  in  the  chlorite-earth,  from  the  highlands  of  Scotland — 

Silica 4S.166 

Magnesia      ...            -  2.916 

Alumina             ....        16.851 
Oxide  of  iron            -            -            -  19.000 

Potassa  -----  6.558 

Lime              ....  2.675 

Water 2.350 

98.718J 

The  composition  of  the  most  common  silvery  mica  from  Zinwald  (Bohemia)  wa» 
ascertained  by  M.  Klaproth  to  be  the  foJlowing — 

Silica        -             -.            -             -             -  47. 

Alumina          ...            -  20. 

Potassa    .....  14.50 

Ox.  iron          ....  15. 50 

Ox.  manganese    ....  1.75 

9S.75§ 

Having  described  the  grounds  on  which  I  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the  green  grains 
of  this  earth  are  chlorite,  or  chlorite  blended  with  mica,  and  rarely  specks  of  serpen- 
tine, I  cannot  but  express  the  opinion,  that  as  a  nutritive  manure  the  efficacy  of  the 
green  particles  has  been  greatly  overrated.  As  these  particles  are  very  little  liable  to 
decomposition,  their  action,  whatever  it  may  be,  must  be  slow,  and,  I  should  infer,  nearly 
imperceptible.  Indeed,  I  am  rather  disposed  to  regard  its  favorable  operation,  if  indeed 
it  lias  any,  as  Mowing,  from  a  mechanical  agency,  after  the  manner  of  a  clay,  than  as 
arising  from  the  liberation  of  its  potassa  through  chemical  decomposition.  Not  that  I 
would  call  in  question  the  usefulness  of  the  earth  taken  as  a  whole,  for  happily  this  is 
too  well  established.  But  when  I  find  a  decided  content  of  sulphate  of  lime,  with  carbon- 
ate  and  phosphate  of  lime  in  addition  thereto, "together  with  distinct  traces  of  organic 
matter,  it  appears  t6  me  unnecessary  to  look  any  farther  in  order  to  account  for  the  phe- 
nomena in  the  case. 

I  now  proceed  to  state  my  method  of  examination,  together  with  the  results  obtained. 

The  specimens  were  kept  in  a  dry  room,  exposed  to  air  in  shallow  dishes,  for  several 
weeks ;  after  which,  portions  free  from  crystals  of  sulphate  of  lime  visible  by  the  naked 
eye,  and  large  fragments  of  shells,  were  heated  in  a  platina  capsule  to  300°,  Fall.,  in 
order  to  expel  hygrometric  moisture,  and  subsequently  to  low  redness,  to  decompose  or- 
ganic matter.  ||  The  organic  matter  is  very  inconsiderable,  and  was  in  no  instances  rigidly 
determined. 

Having  ascertained  by  experiment  that  the  iron-pyrites  was  not  decomposable  by  tepid 
dilute  hydrochloric  acid,  the  following  method  was  resorted  to  for  the  determination  of 

•  Farmers'  Register,  vol.  ii.,  p.  131. 

t  Shepard's  Mineralogy,  vol.  ii.,  p.  225. 

t  Idem,  ii.,  p.  225. 

§  Idem,  ii.,  p.  41. 

jj  This  last  step  was  »lw»ys  attended  with  the  extrication  of  a  little  sulphur. 


CALCAREOUS  MANUHES- APPENDIX. 


223 


the  phosphate  of  lime.  Two  hundred  grains  of  the  triturated  earth  were  suffered  to  stand 
(with  occasional  agitation)  in  contact  with  a  dilute  hydrochloric  acid  for  three  hours. 
The  whole  was  then  transferred  lo  a  filler,  and  the  earth  well  washed  thtjcon,  with 
abundance  of  tepid  water.  The  clear  fluid  and  washings  thus  obtained  \veMWipcr-53lu- 
rated  with  UQmonia,  and  the  precipitate  sub  >Iution 

for  the  removal  of  the  silica  and  the  alumina.     The  per-oxide  ol  .  pli ate  of 

lime  dow remaining,  after  being  well  washed,  were  treated  with  a  cold,  dilute  acetic 
acid,  whereby  the  phosphate  alone  was  taken  into  solotion.    It  was  then  precipitated  by 
ammonia,  dried,  ignited  and  weighed.    Having  found  reason  to  I 
tion  of  finely  divided  phosphate  of  lime  was  pretty  uniform  in  11  .'linens 

of  the  green-sand,  I  was  only  at  the  pains  to  determine  its  exact  proportion  in  speci- 
men No.  I.*  Having  ascertained  how  much  peroxide  of  iron  each  sample  contained, 
this  amount  was  deducted  from  that  yielded  by  the  treatment  ol  the  same  specimen  with 
nitro-hydrochloric  acid,  (aided  by  gentle  heat.)  whereby  the  siilphuret  of  iron  -. 
composed.  Thus  the  ezacl  quantity  of  iron  which  was  engaged  by  the  sulphur  (and 
consequently  the  amount  of  bi-sulphuret  of  iron)  was  asceil 

The  carbonate  of  lime  was  determined  in  the  usual  way,  viz.,  by  treating  the  first  obtained 
solution  in  hydrochloric  acid  with  ammonia,  whereby  the  silica,  alumina,  peroxide  of 
iron,  and  phosphate  of  lime  were  thrown  down,  leaving  the  lime  and  magnesia  alone  in 
a  state  of  suspension.  The  former  was  precipitated  by  oxalate  of  ammonia,  and  subse- 
quently the  latter  by  phosphoric  acid. 

The  sulphate  of  lime  was  ascertained  by  boiling  a  determinate  quantity  of  Ihe  green- 
sand  in  water  until  the  whole  of4his  salt  present  was  taken  into  solution  The  clear 
solution  was  treated  with  chloride  of  barium,  and  the  sulphate  of  baryta  ignited  and 
weighed.  The  sulphuric  acid  present  in  the  earth  was  thus  arrived  at,  and,  by  subse- 
quent calculation,  the  sulphate  of  lime  originally  present  was  ascertained. 

Sulphate  of  alumina  (but  no  sulphate  of  iron)  was  found  to  exist,  in  traces,  by  the 
precipitation  of  alumina,  occasioned  on  the  treatment  of  the  water  boiled  on  the  earth 
with  ammonia.  But  in  each  case  it  was  too  inconsiderable  for  the  determination  ol  its 
proportion.  Chloride  of  calcium  (muriate  of  lime)  was  ascertained  by  treating  the 
same  fluid  with  nitrate  ol  silver.  Its  proportion  did  not  excetd  that  in  which  it  exists 
also  in  common  soils. 

Results  obtained  on  specimen*  of  green  saml  earth  from  Coggint  Point,  James  river. 

"No.  I.  From  8  inches  within  the  exposed  side  of  a  ravine,  where  a  stream  flowed 
by,  and  16  feet  from  the  top  of  the  green  earth. "t  [Middle  part  of  stratum  D, 
see  page  218] 

Hygrometric  moisture,  (lost  at  300°)    -         -     6.50 
By  heating  to  low  redness,  it  lost  in  addition       2.03 

Phosphate  of  lime 0.25 

Carbonate  of  magnesia,  in  decided  traces. 
Sulphate  of  alumina,  in  traces. 

"No.  3.  Same  a9  number  1,  except  from  a  deeper  excavation. 

Hygrometric  moisture  (lost  at  300°)  -  -  4.600 
By  neating  to  low  redness  it  lost  in  addition  -  2.300 
Carbonate  of  lime         -         -         -         -         -     1 

Bi-sulphuret  of  iron 3.06(5 

Carbonate  of  magnesia  and  sulphate  of  alumina  in  traces. 

Phosphate  of  lime,  about  as  in  number  1. 

Sulphate  of  lime 0.618 

"  No.  6.  Three  feet  below  the  river  beach,  [from  pit,  lower  part  of  D,  half  a  mile 
distant  from  preceding.]" 

Hygrometric  moisture 5.400 

By  heating  to  low  redness,  it  lost  in  addition  -     2.060 

Carbonate  of  lime 0.685 

Bi-sulphuret  of  iron 3.060 

Sulphate  of  lime 0.661 

Carbonate  of  magnesia  and  sulphate  of  alumina  in  traces. 
Phosphate  of  lime  as  in  number  1. 

•  I  will  here  observe  that,  by  the  process  now  described,  it  was  ascertained  that  bad 
the  whole  of  the  precipitate  by  ammonia  from  the  hydrochloric  acid  solution  been  taken 
for  phosphate  of  lime,  it  would  have  involved  the  error  of  an  over  estimate  of  the  phos- 
phate by  nearly  800  per  cent. 

t  This  specimen  was  not  thoroughly  analyzed,  and  therefore  the  contents  are  reported 
but  in  part.  The  next  (No.  3)  was  deemed  the  most  important,  and  a  more  correct  speci- 
men of  this  layer,  (D,)  and  therefore  to  it  the  examination  of  Prof.  Shepard  was  especially 


0-)  1  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

"No.  9.  See  loregoing,  page  21?  Having  sulpliuret  of  iron  in  powder,  or  minufe 
crystals ;"  (taken  from  14  feel  below  the  beach,  in  E.~\ 

Carbonate  of  lime  .....     2.350 

Bisulphuret  of  iron       -  5.821 

•Sulphate  of  lime 2.309 

(Carbonate  of  magnesia  not  found.) 
10.  Several  thin  layers  of  compressed  shells.  1  to  3  inches  thick,"  [contained  in 
-.tratuio  £.] 

Carbonate  of  lime         .....     56.00 
Phosphate  of  lime 0.S4 

No.  2.  [£>]  from  4  feet  lower  than  number  I,  was  examined  with  results  similar  to 
1  and  3. 

No.  4.  [D~\  from  4  feet  below  beach,  and  half  a  mile  from  number  1,  was  found  to  be 
rich  in  sulphate  of  lime  and  to  contain  bisulphuret  of  iron. 

No.  5.  [Z>]  "From  another  spot,  and  has  bren  exposed  to  the  weather  from  last  winter 
to  June  on  the  field  where  applied  as  manure  "  Is  richer  than  No.  2  or  4  in  sulphate 
of  lime,  but  inferior  to  either  in  bisulphuret  of  iron.  It  likewise  affords  more  sulphate 
of  alumina  than  any  sample  examined. 

•-  _\o.  11.  The  clay  at  16  to  IS  feet  deep  ;"  [supposed  when  selected  to  be  the  poorest 
part  of  stratum  £.] 

Carbonate  of  lime  -  -  1.45 

It  is  rich  in  sulphate  of  lime,  and  has  traces  of  sulphate  of  alumina,  and  bisulphuret 
of  iron. 

It  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  that  in  these  analyses  no  account  is  taken  of  such  sized  crys- 
tals of  sulphate  of  lime  as  readily  meet  the  eye,  or  of  large  fragments  of  shells,  the 
occasional  presence  of  both  which  must  often  essentially  enhance  the  gypseous  and  cal- 
careous contents  of  these  samples.  The  proportions  in  which  ihey  may  occur  at  different 
depths  and  localities  can  readily  be  detei mined',  however,  by  the  practical  agriculturist. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  the  phosphatic  ingredient  so  far  as  the  teeth  and  bones  of  fishes 
are  concerned. 

If  we  assume  the  average  proportion  of  bisulphuret  of  iron  in  these  earths  to  be  2 
per  cent.,  and  suppose  the  whole  of  the  sulphate  to  become  oxidized,  it  would  give  rise 
to  2.722  per  cent,  of  sulphuric  acid  :  to  saturate  which  would  require  1.905  of  lime,  and 
thereby  produce  4.627  per  cent,  of  (anhydrous)  sulphate  of  lime.  But  2.722  of  lime 
would  demand  3.3S3  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime  in  the  soil.  Now  in  the  three  ana- 
lyses (Nos.  3,  6  and  9)  made,  the  bisulphuret  of  iron,  by  average,  equals  3.649  percent., 
and  the  carbonate  of  lime  in  the  same  equals  but  1.47S  per  cent. — a  quantity  too  small 
for  the  saturation  of  the  acid,  even  after  a  liberal  allowance  is  made  for  the  increase  of 
calcareous  matter  from  the  occasional  presence  of  large  fragments  of  shells. 

It  would  therefore  appear  to  b-  an  obvious  deduction  from  these  inquiries,  that  dress- 
ings of  lime,  and  especially  of  calcareous  bands,  like  No.  10,  should  be  employed  in  con- 
junction with  the  green-sand  soil. 

Having  now  replied  in  the  best  way  I  am  able  to  your  various  inquiries,  I  leave  it  for 
you  to  make  such  other  practical  inferences  from  the  information  afforded  as  in  your 
more  experienced  judgment  it  may  seem  to  authorize—  and  remain,  very  respectfully, 
your  obedient  servant,  Chabi.es  Upham  Shepabd. 

Edmund  Ruffix,  Esq  ,  Petersburg,  Va. 

The  specimens  numbered  above  1,2,3,  were  from  one  locality,  and  of 
earth  which  was  used  as  manure  for  clover  of  this  year,  with  effect  as 
great  as  any  ever  known  on  marled  land  ;  and  with  no  certain  benefit 
on  an  adjoining  space,  (also  in  clover,)  of  the  same  soil  naturally,  but 
not  marled.  Numbers  4,  5,  and  6,  were  from  the  pit  dug  in  the  beach, 
half  a  mile  distant,  apparently  similar  to  each  other,  and  to  the  preceding 
specimens.  All  these  are  of  the  dark  stratum  (D)  richest  in  green-sand, 
(except  the  lowest,  E,~)  and  all  before  rated  by  me  as  containing  50  per 
cent,  of  the  pure  granules.  Professor  Rogers  stated  the  same  to  contain 
60  to  70  per  cent.  (See  F.  Register,  vol.  ii.,  p.  T50,  and  2d  edition  of  'Es- 
say on  Calcareous  Manures,'  p.  1 16.)  Even  if  leaving  the  green-sand  out  of 
consideration,  and  out  of  the  estimate  of  value,  there  would  still  remain 
enough  of  active  manuring  principles  to  produce  a  large  share  of  all  the 
beneficial  effects  which  I  have  found  from  the  use  of  this  earth ;  and  I  have 

requested,  and  was  so  directed.  It  is  therefore  that  the  contents  of  bi-sulphuretof  iron,  car 
bonate  of  lime,  and  sulphate  of  lime  are  not  stated  of  No.  1,  as  in  No   3  — E.  R. 


CALCARBOU8  MANURES   -APPENDIX  225 

heard  of  but  Tew  other  applications  in  Virginia,  other  than  those  made  on 
ins  Point  farm,  and  ol  none  with  different  or  brttrr  a  rtain  effects.  With 
the  help  of  surplus  carbonate  of  lime  in  the  soil,  (furnished  by  n attire  or  by 
previous  marling  or  liming,)  inn  bushels  of  this  earth,  averaging  in 
strength  the  ingredients  of  these  specimens  analyzed  by  Professor  Shepard, 
would  furnish  nearly  5  bushels  of  pure  sulphate  of  lime  (gypsum);  and  40 
bushels  tor  the- acre  would  furnish  2'tushel  Not  one 

of  these  specimens  contained  any  gypsum  'eye;  and.  but  one 

specimen  (number  9)  contained  any  visible  sulpburet  of  iron;  and  therefore 
these  ingredients  may  be  feirly  supposed  to  be  at  least  as  abundant  |n  the 
earth  Jug  in  any  considerable  operation.  What  the  green-sand  or  any 
other  ingredients  may  do  in  addition,  I  pretend  not  to  estimate.  Bui  so 
far  as  I  have  learned  from  my  own  experience  and  all  known  experience 
of  other  persons,  the  whole  operation  of  this  earth,  when  used  alone,  is 
precisely  of  such  kind  as  I  would  anticipate  from  gypsum,  though  yielding 
more  of  benefit  in  measure  and  value.  Nor  should  I  therefore  be  under- 
stood as  placing  a  low  estimate  on  the  value  of  the  effects  produced.  Since 
seeing  the  effects  this  year,  and  especially  since  having  formed  the  opinion 
that  the  upper  and  exposed  parts  (most  generally  used  formerly)  are  com- 
paratively worthless  and  should  be  avoided,  I  count  on  much  benefit  being 
derived  from  this  manure,  and  am  desirous  that  it  shall  be  largely  used ; 
as  my  son  and  partner,  and  the  sole  director  of  our  farming,  proposes  to 
do  for  the  next  year's  growth  of  clover.  Still,  I  am  now  as  far  as  ever  from 
believing  in  or  expecting  such  great  and  regular  benefit  as  would  be  in- 
ferred to  be  certain  from  views  and  statements  which  rest  upon  other  au- 
thority. 

It  may  not  be  useless  to  note  another  pointMf  recent  resemblance  be- 
tween these  two  manures,  both  of  which  seem  so  capricious  and  uncertain 
in  operation  in  general.  This  year  (1842)  the  applications  of  the  green 
earth  on  the  f'oggins  Point  farm,  whether  made  in  the  beginning  of  the  winter 
preceding,  in  March,  of  in  the  beginning  of  summer,  havaacted  more  quick- 
ly anil  powerfully  than  any  known  before.  This  I  had  ascribed  to  the  earth 
beiqg  mostly  obtained  from  deeper  excavations.  But  I  have  lately  heard, 
from  Messrs.  Hill  Carter  and  John  A.  Selden,  both  extensive  and  experi- 
enced and  successful  users  of  gypsum,  that  they  have  never  before  known 
the  good  effects  of  that  manure  to  be  so  remarkable  as  in  all  their  applica- 
tions of  this  year. 

(J.)    EOCENE  GREEN-SAND  MARL. 

Except  in  the  lower  stratum  exposed  in  the  pit  recently  dug  at  Ever- 
green, this  peculiar  valuable  kind  of  marl  has  not  yet  been  known  in 
Virginia  elsewhere  than  on  and  near  .the  borders  of  the  Panmn  key  river; 
though  there  can  be  but  little  doubt  that  this  or  other  eocene  deposites  are 
to  be  found  elsewhere  than  within  the  limits  here  stated  of  the  now  known 
localities.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  other  rivers  cnt  through  and  ex- 
pose some  of  the  eocene  as  well  as  miocene  deposites;  and  that  deep 
diggings  would  reach  them  also  in  the  intervening  high  lands.  The 
Pamunkey  eocene  marl  is  seen  first,  or  most  eastward,  at  Libert}'  Hall, 
(Mr.  Waring's  farm,)  in  King  William  county ;  and  it  is  found  on  nearly 
every  farm  above,  to  South  Wales,  in  Hanover,  the  farm  of  Mr.  William 
F.  Wickham,  just  below  the  junction  of  the  .North  Anna  and  South  Anna 
rivers,  and  on  the  farm  of  Mr.  Williams  Carter,  acrossjhe  Pamunkey,  in 
Caroline  county.  This  distance  in  a  straight  line  is  about  28  miles;  and 
the  very  winding  course  of  the  Pamunkey  serves  to  make  the  exposure 


226  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

of  the  bed  of  marl  show  an  average  width  of  three  or  more  miles. 
Throughout  this  area,  it  is  found  in  great  abundance  at  numerous  points — 
though  of  great  variety  of  appearance  and  of  value  at  different  elevations, 
and  in  very  different  degrees  of  accessibleness,  or  ease  of  working. 

This  marl  every  where  has  its  calcareous  portion  (which  is  usually  small 
in  comparison  to  good  miocene  marls,)  intermixed  with  a  large  proportion 
of  green-sand,  'i  he  calcareous  earth  varies  from  10  to  40  per  cent,  at 
different  diggings,  or  different  layers  at  the  same  locality;  and  the  green- 
sand  perhaps  from  20  to  40  per  cent,  as  estimated  by  the  eye.*  In  some 
places,  the  one  ingredient  predominates  in  quantity,  and  elsewhere  the  other. 
No  one  specimen  has  been  found  rich  in  both  of  these  ingredients.  So  far 
as  known,  the  remainder  of  the  whole  mass,  (as  in  miocene  marls,)  is  of 
silicious  sand  and  clay. 

Below  this  green-sand  marl  lies  a  bed  of  brownish  green  earth,  slightly 
sprinkled  with  small  eocene  shells  and  their  fragments,  but  which,  or  all  the 
calcareous  matter  present,  would  very  rarely  amount  to  5  per  cent.,  and 
sometimes  not  2  per  cent.  To  this  lower  stratum  is  also  applied  the  term 
marl  by  the  proprietors,  as  is  done  in  New  Jersey.  But  this  term  should 
not  be  given  where  the  calcareous  earth  is  so  small  in  amount  as  5  per 
cent.  Though  it  may  be  impossible  to  draw  a  precise  line  of  demarkation, 
either  on  the  banks,  or  to  distinguish  them  by  definition  in  words,  still  these 
two  earths  ought  to  be  known  by  different  terms.  By  green-sand  earth  or 
green  earth,  will  be  here  understood  the  lower  stratum,  or  any  other  having 
green-sand  in  considerable  quantity,  and  not  more  than  5  per  cent,  of  cal- 
careous earth,  if  any.  And  I  would  not  consider  any  as  green-sand  marl, 
that  did  not  have  as  much  as  10  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime— leaving  as 
doubtful  and  debatable,  suj^i  as  had  more  than  5  and  less  than  10  per  cent. 

The  Pamunkey  river  is  very  narrow  and  yet  deep,  and  its  high  banks, 
or  cliffs,  formed  generally  of  green-sand  marl  and  green-sand  earth,  are 
nearly  perpendicular.  The  remarkable  power  which  green-sand  has  of 
resisting  the  washing  of  water,  is  doubtless  the  cause  of  the  narrowness 
of  this  river,  and  of  the  forces  of  its  strong  ordinary  tides  and  violent  current 
in  freshes  having  operated  to  deepen  the  channel,  instead  of  wearing  away 
the  banks.  Slides  of  the  banks,  or  land-slips,  are  frequent ;  large  masses 
of  the  upper  stratum  of  soil  breaking  loose,  and,  with  the  growth  of  large 
trees,  slip  down  the  steep  bank  into  the  river,  scraping  clean  the  exposed 
parts  of  the.  strata  in  the  descent.  In  this  way,  sections  of  the  bank  40  feet 
or  more  in  height  are  exposed  more  completely  to  view  than  would  be 
done  by  the  progress  of  any  diggings  for  marl,  however  rapid  or  extensive. 

The  general  appearance  of  any  one  of  such  sections,  taken  at  one  of 
the  several  exposures  from  one  to  five  miles  below  Newcastle  ferry,  is  as 
follows:  At  top,  below  the  soil  and  ordinary  sub-soil,  (or  diluvial  earth,)  of 
say  10  to  20  feet,  there  is  generally,. though  not  always,  a  stratum  of  some 
4  or  5  feet  of  olive  colored  earth,  so  called,  and  which  term  is  descriptive 
of  the  appearance.  This  earth  is  of  a  greenish  brown  color,  contains 
small  sharks'  teeth  and  fishes'  bones,  but  no  shells.  Its  appearance  so  nearly 
resembles  the  marl  below,  that  it  has  been  sometimes  dug  and  used  instead, 
either  from  the  ignorance  of  the  conductor  or  the  carelessness  of  the  la- 
borers. It  is  entirely  worthless  as  manure,  as  has  been  proved  by  careful 
experiments.  A  well  dug  (to  obtain  water)  at  Piping  Tree  ferry,  pene- 
trated very  deep  into  this  olive  earth  without  reaching  marl.  The  earth 
thus  removed  was  used  as  manure,  without  any  benefit  being  produced. 

*  Tliese  and  all  others  named  supposed  proportions  of  green-sand  wore  written  before 
receiving  Professor  Shepanl's  report.  Hi?  analyses  make  it  seem  probable  that  all  my 
guesses  of  such  proportions  were  too  high. 


if 

CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX.  227 

Mr.  Conrade  Webb  informed  me  that  on  his  estate  in  New  Kent  lie  had 
made  very  careful  comparative  trials  of  applications  of  this  olive  earth, 
on  land  with  and  without  man:  to  like  pieces  without  the  olive 

earth  ;  and  in  neither  case  did  its  application  show  any  effect. 

under  this  olive  earth,  is  green-sand  marl;  sometimes  the  upper 
part  has  livers  full  of  the  saddle  Oyster  shells,  in  place,  which  also  occur 
scattered  throughout  all  this  marl.  Sometimes,  as  above  Newcastle  terry, 
there  are   Inl  ird   lumps  much  richer  in   calcareous   matter  than 

the  surrounding  body.  The  matrix  in  which  these  accidental  bodies  are 
imbedded,  or  the  whole  body  when  they  are  absent,  is  a  dark  gray  marl, 
of  nearly  homogeneous  texture,  containing  green-sand  in  large  proportion, 
and  very  few  shells  or  fragments.  This  sometimes  continues  down  to  the 
green-sand  earth.  But  at  and  a  little  above  the  ferry,  (on  Mr.  Carter  Brax- 
ton's farm,)  there  occurs  between  them  a  stratum  of  larger  shells,  mostly 
the  cardita  planicosta,  as  close  together  as  they  can  lie,  well  preserved  in 
form,  though  very  rotten,  as  all  the  white  shells  are.  The  shells  of 
this  layer  are  often  stained  superficially  of  a  deep  and  vivid  green,  by  the 
green-sand.  This  layer  of  shells  lies  on  the  brownish  green  earth  before 
mentioned,  having  very  little  calcareous  matter,  and  of  which  the  depth  is 
unknown,  as  its  bottom  has  never  been  reached  in  any  of  the  diggings.  This 
layer  of  whole  shells  was  not  seen  elsewhere. 

Such  is  the  succession  of  strata  at  the  fine  bank  of  Mr.  Carter  Braxton, 
Hanover,  a  little  above  Newcastle  ferry ;  and  specimens  of  the  several 
kinds,  analyzed  carefully,  afforded  the  following  results  of  calcareous  matter. 
The  proportions  of  green-sand  were  merely  guessed  at  by  the  eye,  but 
by  careful  examination,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  magnifying  glass. 
Upper  stratum  furnishing  the  greater  proportion  of  all  used  for  manure: 
1 00  grains  contained  of  carbonate  of  lime       -         -        -         -     37  grains. 

100  grains  of  lower  stratum  only 2 

Another  specimen  of  upper  stratum,  carbonate  of  lime     -         -     10 

and  green-sand  moderately  coarse  (supposed,)     -         -         -     40 
At  the  ferry  : 
100  grains  of  upper  stratum,  carbonate  of  lime,       -         -         -     15 

and  (supposed)  of  green-sand 35 

Lower  stratum  of  same,  carbonate  of  Jime      .        -         -         -       6 
Masses  of  stony  hardness,  interspersed  in  same,  contained  of 

carbonate  of  lime 67 

and  green-sand 3 

At  Mr.  J.  \V.  Tomlin's  land,  Hanover,  about  a  mile  below  the  ferry,  the 
visible  section  of  marl  and  green-sand  earth  together  is  32  feet  high,  above 
low  tide  mark,  and  tbe  green-sand  earth  making  only  7  or  8  feet  of  the 
lowest  part.  All  is  eocene — as  I  found  saddle  oyster  shells  at  the  top  of  the 
light  colored  upper  layer,  next  to  the  diluvial  sandy  sub-soil.*  Specimens 
taken  from  different  heights  on  this  bank  yielded  the  following  proportions 
of  carbonate  of  lime  : 
From  7  feet  above  low  tide,  1 00  grains  contained  of  carbonate 

of  lime 35 

At  14  feet 31 

At  29  feet '-         -     15 

Upper  light-colored  stratum — (not  including  in  the  specimen 

any  of  its  few  large  saddle  oyster  shells)  6 

Thin  stratum  of  hard  shelly  marl,  low  in  the  section  -         -     45 

•  This  light  colored  upper  layer  is  stated  by  the  state  geologist,  in  big  report,  to  be 
mioceoe.  See  first  report,  of  1835,  and  same  copied  at  p.  670,  vol.  hi.,  Farmers'  Re- 
gister. 


ggg  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

'  The  green-sand  stratum  (brownish  color)  of  7  or  S  feet  above  the  water 
was  not  analyzed  ;  but.  as  at  all  other  places  on  this  river,  was  evidently 
very  poor  in  calcareous  matter. 

On  the  land  of  Mr.  George  W.  Bassett,  Hanover,  about  5  miles  below 
Newcastle  ferry,  the  marl  appears  rich  and  of  more  homogeneous  texture 
and  uniform  appearance  than  generally  elsewhere.  Yet  it  is  variable,  and 
on  the  average  is  poor  in  calcareous  matter.  However,  this  marl,  which 
has  been  largely  used  by  Dr.  Corbin  Braxton,  water-borne  to  Chericoke, 
8  miles  below,  has  been  wonderfully  efficacious.  Still  it  has  not  been  used 
at  all,  or  considered  worth  being  applied,  by  its  proprietor.  Specimens 
analyzed  at  different  times  showed  the  following  proportions  of  calcareous 
matter : 

Stratum  a  few  feet  above  the  level  of  river,  100  grains  contain- 
ed of  carbonate  of  lime,  -         -         -         -  -         10  grains. 

And  green-sand  (supposed,)  35 

Another  (furnished  and  analyzed  in  1S40)  carbonate  of  lime,        1 1 

And  green-sand, 27 

Another,  from  different  part  of  same  bank,  carbonate  of  lime,      45.50 

This  body  was  examined  personally  by  the  state  geologist,  and  his  esti- 
mate of  its  contents  of  carbonate  of  lime  and  of  green-sand  was  34  per 
cent,  of  each. 

C'ver  this  marl  is  a  regular  stratum,  perhaps  5  feet  thick,  of  the  olive 
earth.  The  marl  descends  to  the  level  of  the  river,  and  therefore  the  green- 
s'- r.d  earth  below  is  not  here  visible. 

iu  the  river  bank  of  Northbury,  in  New  Kent,  one  of  the  farms  of  Mr. 
Conrade  Webb,  the  green-sand  marl  presents  the  usual  appearance,  and 
is  overlaid  by  the  olive  colored  earth.  To  my  eye  this  marl  was  rather 
poor  in  the  calcareous  ingredient,  and,  as  Mr.  Webb  supposed,  in  use  was 
often  adulterated  by  the  carelessness  of  overseers  and  laborers,  by  admix- 
tures of  the  worthless  olive  earth.  Still,  the  application  as  manure  has 
had  very  good  effect.  A  large  quantity  of  this  particular  body  has  been 
dug  and  used;  but  it  has  since  been  abandoned,  because  of  the  greater 
value  of  and  more  convenient  access  to  other  more  recently  discovered 
beds,  which  will  presently  be  noticed.  At  Northbury,  as  Professor  Rogers 
supposed  and  reported  in  1S35,  "the  precise  point  was  determined  at 
which  the  eocene  first  makes  its  appearance  above  the  water  line"  of  the 
Pamunkey.  But  it  has  been  since  found  at  Mr.  Waring's  farm,  about  4 
miles  lower,  as  well  as  at  AVaterloo,  another  part  of  Mr.  Webb's  estate. 
about  two  miles  lower  than  the  first  diggings  at  Northbury. 

By  using  the  borer  in  low  places,  but  where  no  sign  of  marl  was  visible 
on  the  surface,  Mr.  Webb  has  since  discovered  the  eocene  marl  which  will 
be  next  described,  at  various  points  in  a  line  stretching  through  the  middle 
of  his  large  estate,  and  furnishing  a  convenient  supply  to  each  of  the  three 
farms.  At  several  distant  points,  large  pits  have  been  dug,  which  are  sunk 
from  16  to  20  feet  deep  in  the  solid  marl,  without  reaching  bottom  or  show- 
ing any  change  of  the  lower  of  the  two  kinds  of  marl.  The  pits  are  work- 
ed quite  dry;  but  no  marl  having  been  dug  for  some  time  before  my  visit 
(May  1842)  the  pits  were  then  all  full  of  water  to  the  brim,  and  there  was 
but  little  opportunity  to  examine  the  marl,  except  at  the  upper  edges,  and 
in  the  heaps  still  remaining  unspread  over  a  part  of  one  of  the  fields. 
However,  Mr.  Webb  had  before  selected  and  kept  for  me,  at  my  request, 
fail-  specimens  in  two  large  lumps  of  marl  from  one  of  the  largest  and 
deepest  pits,  from  which  my  analyses  were  made.  The  one,  a  specimen  of 
the  upper  8  or  10  feet  of  depth,  is  full  of  large  fragments  of  shells,  gene- 
rally Very  soft  and  much  decayed,  and  with  very  few  whole  shells,  except 


CALCABEOI  S  MANURES-APPENDIX.-  Dog 

those  of  the  oyster  kind.  Below  this  stratum,  the  marl  ;as  shown  by  the 
sample)  has  no  shells  or  considerable  fragments,  is'oi  dark  pray  color  and 
homogeneous  texture,  like  coarse  sand  united  in  a  mass  by  barely  enough 
of  clay  to  serve  for  that  purpose.  This  apparent  texture  belongs  ^most 
of  the  Pamunkey  marls,  and  is  caused  by  the  shelly  matter  being  so  pul- 
verized as  to  be  in  facta  coarse  calcareous  sand.  The  specimen  of  this 
lower  stratum,  of  which  8  or  Id  fret  depth  had  been  Exposed,  contained  in 
100  grains,  35.50  of  carbonate  of  lime;  and  the  upper  (shelly  stratum)  35. 
The  green-sand  in  both  kinds  appeared  to  be  in  less  proportion  than  in  the 
marl  of  the  river  bank  at  Northbury,  and  elsewhere  along  the  river 
generally.  Probably  there  was  not  more  than  20  per  cent,  at  mo^t.  The 
upper  stratum,  and  larger  part  as  used,  of  this  marl,  through  a  line  of 
several  miles  in  length,  is  very  different  in  appearance  from  all  the  other 
marls  seen  on  the  river.  And  it  must  also  be  different  in  geological  age  or 
manner  of  original  deposition,  as  the  shells  show  much  difference.  Very 
few  of  the  cardita  planicosta  were  found  in  the  heaps  of  marl,  (which  al- 
ways offer  the  best  exhibition  of  shells  for  collection,)  and  those  of  very 
small  size,  and  no  saddle  oysters.  On  the  other  hand,  several  shells  were 
found,  not  observed  by  me  at  any  other  place ;  and  one  of  them,  an  oyster 
shell  of  large  size,  of  remarkable  and  peculiar  form,  and  in  excellent  pre- 
servation, is  very  abundant.  Though  various  in  form,  as  are  all  the  ostreas, 
this,  or  the  more  convex  of  its  two  valves,  has  a  general  peculiarity  in  a 
large  and  sharp  hump  on  the  back,  and  sometimes  two  such  humps.  Ano- 
ther ostrea,  of  which  the  shell  is  very  thin  and  very  convex,  and  the  out- 
line of  the  valves  nearly  circular,  is  here  abundant,  and  as  large  as  two 
inches  across.  No  specimen  of  the  same  had  ever  been  seen  by  me,  ex- 
cept perhaps  a  few  at  Newcastle  of  size  so  small  that  the  identity  was 
doubtful.  The  striking  differences  of  kind  and  of  proportions  of  the  shells 
at  Mr.  Webb's  more  recent  diggings  would  be  highly  interesting  to  any 
person  possessing  that  knowledge  of  geology,  and  its  auxiliary  science,  fossil 
conchology,  to  which  I  have  no  claim,  and  make  no  pretension.  I  have 
done,  however,  all  in  my  power,  to  increase  the  facilities  of  future  com- 
petent investigators,  by  collecting  and  preserving  specimens  for  their 
examination.  My  cabinet  eontaftW  not  only  some  of  all  the  shells  that  I 
have  found,  or  have  been  able  to  obtain  from  the  several  kinds  of  marl,  but 
also  specimens  of  ail  the  marls  of  peculiar  and  marked  character,  with  their 
localities  accurately  distinguished.  And  the  time  and  the  labor  which 
I  have  given  to  making  the  collection,  with  opportunities  possessed  by  but 
few  other  individuals,  may  thus  serve  greatly  to  advance  the  pursuits  of 
scientific  and  truly  competent  investigators. 

In  the  river  bank  of  Mr.  Carter  Braxton's  farm,  immediately  above  the 
Newcastle  ferry,  there  commences  a  rapid  decrease  of  the  thickness  of  the 
calcareous  or  marl  stratum  proper,  which  is  substituted  by  an  equal  in- 
crease or  rising  of  the  under-lying  green-sand  earth.  A  little  above  the 
ferry,  the  marl  is  at  least  10  feet  thick ;  at  less  than  a  mile  above,  the  thick- 
ness of  the  marl  is  only  5  feet ;  and  at  the  next  large  exposure,  on  the 
adjacent  farm  of  Mr.  B.  Tomlin,  the  marl  is  not  more  than  2  or  3  feet 
thick,  over-lying  green-sand  earth  marked  with  a  few  scattered  and  small 
shells,  rising  to  nearly  the  full  usual  height  of  the  marl,  say  25  feet  or  more 
visible  above  the  water.  This  was  as  far  in  regular  connexion  along  the 
river  as  I  personally  examined  ;  but  I  learned  that  still  higher,  the  calca- 
reous stratum  almost  ceases,  the  lower  stratum  of  green-sand  earth  occupy- 
ing nearly  the  whole  visible  section.  The  lower  stratum  of  the  body  at 
Spring  Garden,  Hanover,  (Mr.  William  II.  Uoane's  farm,)  next  above,  is 
stated  in  Professor  Rogers'  Report  as  containing,  in  100  parts — 
29 


230  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

<  'arbonate  of  lime  -         -         -         -         -         -         -* 

Green-sand 46 

Gypsum          •-• ° 

Silica  and  alumina -         -         -  50 

100 
The  next  important  locality  of  marl,  and  perhaps  the  most  interesting, 
is  South  Wales,  Hanover,  the  farm  of  Mr.  William  F.  Wickham,  and  which 
is  the  highest  point  of  its  known  existence.  Here,  as  at  the  western  ter- 
minationof  the  green-sand  in  Petersburg,  the  bottom  is  seen,  the  under-ly- 
ing stratum  being  gravelly  sand  mixed  with  rounded  pebbles.  This  marl, 
asseen  in  several  places  where  very  large  excavations  had  been  made  to 
marl  both  the  South  Wales  and  North  Wales  farms,  differs  altogether  in 
appearance,  and  greatly  in  constitution,  from  all  the  kinds  below.  The 
bed  is  about  10  feet  thick,  is  generally  of  uniform  dark  (nearly  black)  color, 
except  for  being  intermixed  throughout  with  large  fragments  of  white 
shells.  At  one  place,  the  upper  stratum  of  the  marl  is  yellow  or  pale 
reddish  instead  of  black,  but  similar  in  the  appearance  of  shells.  Speci- 
mens of  these  marls  carefully  selected  on  the  places  in  1840,  and  analyzed, 
gave  the  following  results: 

From  South  Wales,  (William  F.  Wickham's  land,)  Hanover  county, 
100  grains  of  upper  stratum,  yellowish,  consisted  of 

Carbonate  of  lime -         -        36 

Silicious  sand  and  green-sand  together  47 — of  which  green-sand 

appeared  to  be  one-tenth  or ■  4.70 

and  silicious  (or  quartz)  sand 42.30 

Yellow  clay  and  loss 17 

100  grains  blackish  marl,  lying  below  the  last — 

Carbonate  of  lime 44 

Green-sand 8 

100  grains  similar  to  the  last,  from  a  different  digging — 

Carbonate  of  lime 32.50 

Green-sand 22 

From  North  Wales,  Caroline  county,  Williams  Carter's  land, 
100  grains  of  like  blackish  marl  contained — 

Carbonate  of  lime 37 

Green-sand 24 

These  specimens,  which  were  supposed  to  present  a  fair  average  of  the 
whole  body,  show  an  unusually  large  proportion  of  carbonate  of  lime  for 
the  Pamunkey  eocene  beds,  and  a  less  proportion  of  green-sand.  To  the 
happy  combination  of  the  two  manures,  I  cannot  but  ascribe  the  remark- 
able success  of  Mr.  Wickham  in  fertilizing  his  land.  Still,  he  deems  the 
green-sand  ingredient  of  so  little  worth,  compared  to  the  calcareous,  that  he 
he  would  prefer  that  his  marl  should  have  had  none  of  the  former  substance, 
provided  an  equal  quantity  of  calcareous  matter  could  be  substituted. 

In  a  former  publication,  I  have  presented  at  length  both  the  facts  and 
my  opinions  of  the  peculiar  operation  of  the  green-sand  marls  of  the  Pamun- 
key.* It  is  therefore  enough  to  say  here,  that  the  operation  of  this  compound 
manure  is  greater  than  of  any  quantity  of  either  one  of  the  two  enriching 
materials  of  which  it  is  composed.  In  smaller  quantity  than  is  usually  applied 
of  calcareous  marl,  it  produced  equal  or  greater  effect,  and  was  more  espe- 
cially beneficial  to  clover.  The  heaviest  quantities  also  applied  (as  in  the 
practice  of  Mr.  Wickham,)  caused  no  los9;  though  the  like  large  quantities 

♦  See  more  full  statements  at  pp.  670  to  691,  vol.  viii.  Farmers'  Register. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX  93] 

of  merely  calcareous  marl  would  have  been  certainly  eithei  «  isteful  of  the 
manure,  or  injurious  to  the  land. 

Many  specimens  of  these  Pamunkey  marls  and  of  the  lower-lying  green - 
sand  earth  were  subjected  to  a  partial  red  heat,  for  the  purpose  ol  showing 
whether  suffocating  sulphureous  fumes  were  disengaged,  as  was  stated 
above  fp  ige  3 1 5  )  to  be  the  case  with  some  of  the  James  rivei  gi  een-sand 
earth.  The  lower  stratum  (very  slightly  calcareous)  of  the  Pamunkey 
mails,  from  Newcastle  ferry,  and  at  J.  W.  Tomlii  ul  such 

fumes,  but  not  so  powerfully  as  the  dark  gypseous  earth  of  1  logging  Point. 
The  next  higher  calcareous  and  green-sand  stratum  of  J.  W.  Tomlln's,  and  . 
the  same  kind  at  Piping  Tree  ferry,  and  the  blackish  marl  at  South  Wales, 
all  yielded  these  strong   fumes,  but  in  a  still  le.--  Sundry  other 

specimens  of  calcareous  green-sand  marl  which  were  thus  treated,  yielded 
no  fumes.  The  latter  results  were  found  in  specimens  from  the  several 
diggings  at  .Newcastle,  (both  sides  of  the  river.)  and  at  G.  W.  Bassett's 
bank.  It  may  not  be  useless  to  repeal  here,  and  thus  to  place  in  connexion 
with  these  results,  that  all  the  dark  green  or  blackish  earth  (/))  of  Ooggins 
Point  gave  out  these  suffocating  fumes,  and  also  the  fray  clay  (/?)  below, 
and  most  powerfully — and  that  no  such  product  was  found  from  any  of  the 
very  shelly  bands.  Thus  it  would  seem  that  most  generally  the  non-calcareous 
earths  (or  nearly  non-calcareous")  gave  out  fumes,  and  the  calcareous  not. 
But  exceptions  were  found  to  both.  And  of  the  A'ew  Jersey  green-sands, 
containing  no  carbonate  of  lime,  six  specimens  were  tried  at  red  heat,  of 
earths  most  esteemed  for  manure,  and  not  the  slightest  disengagement  of 
such  fumes  was  produced.* 

Of  green-sand  as  an  ingredient  of  miocene  marls. 

In  a  previous  page,  (199,)  the  presence  of  green-sand  in  miocene  marls, 
as  an  important  and  general  ingredient,  was  denied  ;  and  the  subject  then 
passed  by,  with  the  promise  of  its  being  subsequently  resumed.  Having 
treated  of  the  gypseous  earth  and  of  eocene  green-sand  marls,  of  both  of 
which  green-sand  forms  large  and  important  proportions,  it  is  now  most 
appropriate  to  inquire  into  the  alleged  extent  and  operation  of  this  sub- 
stance in  miocene  marls. 

In  1834,  Professor  William  B.  Rogers  (then  a  resident  of  lower  Virgi- 
nia) announced  that  he  had  discovered  green-sand  to  be  a  considerable 
ingredient  of  nearly  all  the  many  ordinary  miocene  marls  which  he  had 
examined  either  in  place  or  by  specimens;  and  from  which  observations  he 
inferred  the  same  admixture  to  be  general  as  to  other  miocene  marls ;  and 
that  the  proportions  of  green-sand  so  contained  were  large  enough  to  form 
useful  additions  to,  and  in  some  cases  the  most  valuable  portion  of  the  ma- 
nuring ingredients  of  such  marls,  (Farmer's  Register,  vol.  ii.,  p.  129.)  At 
a  later  time,  he  added  to  like  general  opinions  and  statements  the  following  ; 
"  In  some  of  these  deposites  [marl  beds  in  the  vicinity  of  Williamsburg,]  so 
large  a  proportion  as  thirty  and  in  some  specimens  forty  per  cent,  [of  pure 
green-sand]  has  been  found  ;  and  in  cases  like  this,  if  we  are  to  trust  to 
the  experience  of  New  Jersey,  a  very  marked  addition  to  the  fertilizing 
power  of  marl  must  be  ascribed  to  the  presence  of  this  ingredient."  (Farm- 
er's Register,  vol.  ii.,  p.  717.)    In  a  subsequent  communication  to  the  Phi- 

'  The    New  Jersey  "  marls"  lhu>  ;  ril  r  from  (he   pits  of 

Josiah  Heritage  and  Thomas  Bee  of  Gloucester,  and   II   my  alien,  Allen    Wallace.  J, 
Riley,  and  J.  Cauley,  Salem  county    Thesaine  results  were  found  as  tothe  poorer  (0 
valued)  overlying  strata  ol   Heritage,  R,  Dickenson,  I    CaoJey,  and  also  of  the  barren 
green  clay  or  subsoil.    See  all  described  in  my  report  01  --y  green-sand  earths, 

Farmers'  Register,  vol.  x.  p.  12'i 


232  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

losophical  Society  of  Philadelphia  in  1835,  and  again  in  the  first  report 
of  the  geological  survey  of  Virginia,  the  material  parts  of  the  above  state- 
ments are  re-asserted,  in  substance,  and  nearly  in  the  same  words.  These 
statements  and  opinions  were  received,  when  announced,  as  undoubted, 
and  they  have  not  since  been  questioned  in  any  publication  ;  nor  have  they 
since  been  either  confirmed  by  any  additional  proof  or  testimony,  nor  have 
they  in  direct  terms  been  modified  or  retracted  by  their  author.  Yet  the 
correctness  or  incorrectness  of  the  assertion  of  such  abundance  and  general 
diffusion  of  green-sand  in  the  miocene  marls  of  Virginia  is  a  matter  of  great 
interest — and,  in  its  bearing  on  the  application  of  marl  and  the  rationale  of 
its  operation,  of  great  importance  to  agricultural  improvement.  It  is  certain 
that  to  this  day,  many  proprietors  consider  that  their  marls  are  peculiarly  va- 
luable because  of  the  supposed  large  proportions  of  green-sand  therein — 
such  opinions  being  founded  either  on  the  publications,  or,  with  still  more 
confidence,  upon  the  personal  examinations  and  verbally  expressed  opinions 
of  the  state' geologist. 

My  own  personal  examinations  of  marls  in  place,  and  analyses  of  speci- 
mens of  other  beds,  have  been  very  extensive  ;  and  my  attention  has  been 
given  especially  in  regard  to  this  point  to  sundry  specimens,  including 
several  of  the  particular  bodies  of  marl  which  it  is  understood  that  Pro- 
fessor Rogers  had  pronounced  to  be  very  rich  in  green-sand— containing, 
say,  20  to  30  per  cent,  of  the  black  granules  so  called.  I  have  found 
some  green-sand  (but  generally  in  very  small  proportion,)  in  nearly  all  the 
specimens  examined  particularly  for  this  substance ;  and  believe  that  Pro- 
fessor Rogers  was  correct  so  far  as  inferring  that  it  is  a  very  frequent 
ingredient.  And  for  the  first  observation  of  this  curious  and  interesting 
fact  he  is  justly  entitled  to  the  entire  credit.  To  such  extent  as  green-sand 
is  present,  and  according  to  the  manner  of  the  operation  of  that  earth, 
(whatever  that  may  be,)  the  green-sand  in  the  miocene  marls  must  be 
effective  and  useful.  But  whether  such  effect  be  of  any  distinguishable 
and  appreciable  value,  or  not,  depends  on  the  quantity  and  proportion  of 
green-sand  in  the  marl ;  and,  so  far  as  all  my  experience  and  observation 
enable  me  to  judge,  I  cannot  but  believe  that  the  above  stated  estimates 
of  quantities  and  proportions  of  green-sand  are  greatly  exaggerated, 
and  extremely  incorrect  and  delusive.  I  do  not  mean  to  assert,  and  can- 
not be  expected"  to  prove,  the  negative  of  the  assertion  of  such  abundance 
of  green- sand.  But,  from  all  my  means  for  arriving  at  conclusions,  it  is 
my  confident  belief  that  but  few  of  the  bodies  of  miocene  marls  in  Vir- 
ginia contain  as  much  as  2  per  cent,  of  green-sand — if  even  as  much 
as  1  per  cent. ;  and  that  an  average  proportion,  throughout  any  con- 
siderable digging  for  manure,  of  as  much  as  5  per  cent,  of  green- 
sand  is  extremely  rare.  The  largest  proportion  (estimated  by  the 
eye)  that  I  ever  found  was  supposed  to  be  5  per  cent. ;  and  that  was  in  a 
very  peculiar  marl,  found  at  Coggins  Point  farm  and  elsewhere  in  that 
neighborhood,  or  rather  a  ldose  calcareous  sand,  which  forms  the  over-lying 
layer  of  compact  blue  marl.  This  sand  contains  only  about  20  per  cent, 
of  finely  divided  shelly  matter,  and  the  whole  mass  would  appear,  to  slight  ob- 
servation, similar  to  and  as  poor  and  as  loose  as  the  deep  sands  of  the  roads 
through  a  sandy  country.  But  few  persons  would  have  used  this  sand  for 
manure — or  would  have  dignified  it  by  the  name  of  marl.  However,  the 
ease  with  which  it  could  be  worked,  and  the  necessity  for  removing  it  to 
uncover  the  better  marl  below,  induced  me  to  carry  out  and  apply  it  as  a 
second  dressing  to  an  adjacent  part  of  a  field  which  had  been  just  before 
marled.  The  effects  were  so  marked,  and  so  superior  to  the  single  marling, 
that  I  was  ready  to  believe  that  the  green-sand  caused  the  difference. 
The  loose  calcareous  sand  mentioned  at  page  201,  which  one  of  my  neigh- 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX.  233 

bors  supposed  (from  its  good  effects)  to  be  rich  in  calcareous  earth,  is  pre- 
cisely like  mine  in  general  appearance,  and  in  position  in  the  bed;  and 
appears  to  have  a  like  unusually  large  proportion  of  green-sand,  which  no 
doubt  served  to  produce  part  ol  the  benefit  which  was  ascribed  wholly  to  the 
carbonate  of  lime.  This  peculiar  deposite  furnishes  the  only  cases  known  to 
me  of  a  miocene  marl  being  rich  enough  in  green-sand  for  the  benefit  from 
the  latter  to  be  known.  And  even  this  benefit  would  not  have  been  distin- 
guished or  suspected,  but  that  the  poverty  of  the  earth  in  calcareous  matter 
required  it  to  be  applied  very  heavily.  The  much  thicker  body  of  compact 
marl,  lying  under  this  poor  calcareous  sand,  contains  (by  supposition)  not 
so  much  as  2  per  cent,  of  green-sand. 

But  it  is  true,  that  when  attention  was  not  particularly  directed  to  green- 
sand,  proportions  not  exceeding  5  or  G  per  cent,  might  have  escaped  the  notice 
of  one  who  had  handled  and  examined  the  specimens  of  marl,  or  who  even 
analyzed  them,  merely  with  a  view  to  their  proportions  of  calcareous  matter. 
But  proportions  so  large  as  40,  30,  or  even  20  per  cent,  of  green-sand  could 
not  thus  escape  even  careless  and  superficial  observation;  for  even  the 
smallest  of  these  proportions  would  give  a  very  manifest  greenish  or  gray 
tint  to  any  otherwise  light-colored  marl.  Knowing  the  great  uncertainty 
of  the  g-ue.tsimrs  at  proportions  of  green-sand  naturally  intermixed  with  marl 
or  other  earth,  I  did  not  rely  on  them  except  as  to  the  absence  of  any  very 
large  proportion.  For  more  accurate  testing,  the  clayey  parts  were  washed 
off  in  water;  in  others  the  calcareous  parts  were  also  removed  by  weak 
acid.  And  for  still  better  means  of  judging  by  comparison,  1  mixed  toge- 
ther, in  different  known  proportions,  measured  quantities  of  light-colored 
marl  (such  as  arc  all  those  about  Williamsburg,)  and  pure  green-sand  pre- 
pared by  washing  some  obtained  from  the  richest  beds  in  New  Jersey.  And 
of  such  artificial  compounds,  examined  by  the  eye  both  when  dry  and  in 
powder,  and  wet,  and  also  alter  being  again  dried  in  mass,  the  admixture  of 
green-sand,  even  when  as  small  as  10  per  cent.,  was  obviously  more  abun- 
dant than  in  the  miocene  marls  reputed  to  be  among  the  richest  in  green- 
sand.  Under  these  circumstances,  without  denying  the  possible  existence 
of  such  cases,  it  is  proper  to  wait  for  and  to  require  further  proof  of  such 
large  proportions  as  20  to  40  per  cent. 

But  there  is  much  better  support  for  my  position,  of  the  general  scarcity 
of  green-sand  in  miocene  marls,  than  any  proofs,  positive  or  negative,  that 
I  can  adduce,  presented  by  Prof.  Rogers  himself  in  his  '  Report  of  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Geological  Survey'  for  1837.  He  therein  gives  a  tabular  state- 
ment of  148  specimens  selected  by  his  assistants,  and  their  analyses  made 
under  his  own  direction.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  so  many  specimens,  and 
thus  obtained,  must  present  a  fair  and  correct  average  of  general  quality  of 
the  marls  of  the  region  in  which  they  were  found  ;  or  at  least  that  their  con- 
tents would  not  be  too  little  favorable  to  the  geologist's  preconceived  opinions. 
The  specimens  were  from  18  counties,  viz. :  Lancaster,  Westmoreland,  Rich- 
mond, Northumberland,  King  George,  Mathews,  Middlesex,  Gloucester, 
King  and  Queen,  King  William,  Essex,  Isle  of  Wight,  Nansemond,  Elizabeth 
City,  Surry,  Prince  George,  James  City,  and  Warwick.  Of  these  148  speci- 
mens, of  one  only  (S.  Downing's,  Lancaster,)  is  the  quantity  or  proportion 
of  green-sand  stated  with  any  approach  to  precision.  This  is  said  to  contain 
"  10  or  12  per  cent,  of  green-sand,"  and  only  17  per  cent  of  carbonate  of 
lime.  Of  five  others,  the  green-sand  would  seem  to  be  in  notable  quantities, 
but  as  no  numbers  or  proportions  are  named,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the 
proportions  were  deemed  loss  than  the  one  just  stated.  These  five  are 
described  as  follows,  in  regard  to  this  ingredient :  Callahan's,  Lancaster, 
"large  grains  of  gfeen-sand  in  considerable  quantity ;"  Gloucester  Town, 
"  richJy  specked  with  green-sand ;"     Saunders",  Isle  of  Wight,  (one  only  of 


234 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 


three  strata,)  "considerable  green-sand."  Stith's,  Surry,  '-quite  richly 
specked  with  green-sand."  A.  C.  Jones',  Surry,  and  at  Kingsmill,  James  City, 
"intermixed  with  green-sand."  Now  what  proportions  these  descriptions 
designate,  it  is  not  for  me  to  determine ;  but  3  or  4  per  cent.,  at  most,  would 
abundantly  serve  to  meet  all  their  requisitions.  There  are  also  7  other  of  the 
specimens  named  marked  in  less  degrees  by  the  presence  of  this  ingredient, 
and  which  are  described  in  this  respect  in  such  phrases  as  these  :  containing 
"a  little  green-sand"— "  specked  with  green-sand"— "  quite  perceptibly 
specked  with  green-sand" — "tinged  with  green-sand" — and  "slightly  inter- 
mixed with  green-sand."  There  remain  of  the  list  135  other  specimens, 
of  which  48  are  stated  to  contain  of " green-sand  a  trace"  (by  which  term 
chemists  understand  a  proportion  so  small  that  its  presence  is  barely  cer- 
tain,) and  of  the  other  87  specimens  no  green-sand  is  mentioned,  and 
therefore  it  may  be  inferred  that  not  even  "a  trace"  could  be  found. 

If  this  list  of  marls  and  statements  of  their  fertilizing  contents  had  been 
presented  by  the  author  distinctly  as  a  designed  refutation  of  his  previously 
and  repeatedly  published  opinions  of  the  frequent  abundance  and  general 
presence  in  useful  quantity  of  green-sand  in  miocene  mails,  nothing  could 
have  been  more  to  the  purpose,  or  more  conclusive. 

Nevertheless,  few  and  rare  as  may  be  the  cases  in  which  the  value  and 
beneficial  effects  of  marls  are  increased  in  any  considerable  degree  by  the 
presence  of  green-sand,  or  of  any  other  ingredient  than  carbonate  of  lime, 
it  is  important  that  such  auxiliary  fertilizing  matters  should  be  searched 
for,  and  their  absence  or  presence  known.  The  great  value  and  uni- 
form fertilizing  effects  of  carbonate  of  lime  will  be  the  most  highly  appre- 
ciated by  those  farmers  who  understand  and  estimate  them  separately 
and  alone;  without  confounding  the  operation  of  that  manuring  earth  with 
those  of  any  other  intermixed  and  unknown  substances,  no  matter  what 
increase  of  benefit  such  intermixture  may  produce  in  particular  cases. 

KNOWN    SHELLS    OF    THE    MARLS    OP    LOWER    VIRGINIA.* 

Miocene. 

Astarte  undulata,  Say.  Crepidula  aculeata,  Lamarck. 

"      concentrica,  Conrad.  "         fornicata         " 

"      vicina,  Say.  Conns ? 

Artemis  acetabulum       "  Dentalium  thallus,  Con. 

Area  incile,  Say.  Dispota^a  costata,  Say. 

"    centenaria,  Say.  Fusus  quadricostatus,  Say. 

'•     limula,  Con.  "      cenereus             " 

"    idonea    "  "      exilis,  Con. 

Ballanus ?  Fissurella, ? 

Buccinum  porcinuin,  Say.  Fasciolaria  mutabilis,  Con. 

"        obsoletum     "  Gnathodon  cuneatum,  Gray. 

"        laqueatum    "  Isocardia  rustica,  Sowerby. 

"        altile,  Con.  Lucina  divaricata,  Lam. 

Cardium  laqueatum,  Con.  '   "      contracta,  Say. 

"      Virginianum  "  "      anodonta,     " 

Chama  congregata,  Con.  "     cribaria,      " 

"      corticosa,         "  •'      squamosa,  Lam 

Corbula  cuneata,        "  Lithodendron  lineatus,  Con. 

"      inequale,  Say.  Murex  uinbrifrr,  Con. 

Crassatella  undulata,  Say.  Mactra  delumbis,   " 

Carditamera  arata,  Con.  Marginella ? 

Cardita  granulata,  Say.  Natica  lieros,  Say. 

Cytherea  reposta,  Con.  "      duplicata,  Say. 

*  I  am  indebted  to  my  friend  M.  Tuomey  for  this  list  of  the  known  tertiary  shells  in 
my  collection.  There  are  also  sundry  other  species  or  varieties  which  are  doubtful  or 
undetermined,  and  therefore  are  not  here  enumerated. 


CALCARE0H8  MANURES— APPENDIX.  23-*) 

Uslrea  Viraioiaaa,  t.'meJ.  Pecten  Clintoniim,  Soy, 

■■     subfalcata,  Con.  "    eboreus,  Con. 

Oliva  littemta,  l.mn.  Pectuoculus  subovatus,  Say. 

Pandora  arauideoa.  "           pulvioatue,  Lam. 

Panopea  rtflexa,  Peru  maxillata, 

Petncola  eentenaria,  I  Pleurotoma 1 

Plicalula  marginata,  Soy.  Serptila ? 

Pecten  Jeflersoni  ■  Teredo 1 

■■     Hadiaonius  Turritella, 

"     seplemnarius    "  Venus  tridacnoides,  Lam. 

■•    dacejoanarius,  Con.  "    Rileyi,  Con. 

"     Virginiann-  "     alveata.  Con. 

Eocene. 

Cardila  planicosta.  Pecten  Lyelli,  tea. 

Corbula  Alabamienges,  Lea,  Paiiopa-a  oblongata,  Con. 

C'rassatclla ?  Rostellnria  velala.         " 

1 1  -(  i-.-.i  -.  Il.rt.  .icnis.  dm.  Turritella  Moroni. 
"     compressirostra,  Con. 

Erratum  in  Professor  Shepanl'a  loiter,  p. 939,1 IB,f0I  "  noiritrn ."  read  misirac.. 


NOTE  V. 

HIE    EARLIEST    KNOWN    SUCCESSFUL    APPLICATIONS  OF    FOSSIL    SHELLS    AS    MANURE. 

The  two  old  experiments  described  at  page. 70,  though  the  only  applica- 
tions of  fossil  shells  known  to  me  previous  to  the  commencement  of  my  use 
of  this  manure,  were  not  all  that  had  been  made,  and,  which  being  deem- 
ed failures,  had  been  abandoned  and  forgotten.  Another,  within  a  few 
miles  of  my  residence,  was  brought  to  light  and  notice  afterwards,  by  an 
old  negro,  who  was  perhaps  the  only  person  then  living  who  had  any 
knowledge  of  the  facts.  After  I  had  found  enough  success  in  using  this 
manure  to  attract  to  it  some  attention,  Mr.  Thomas  '  !ooke  of  Aberdeen  was 
one  of  those  who  began,  but  still  with  doubt  and  hesitation,  to  use  marl 
to  some  considerable  extent.  One  of  his  early  applications  was  to  his 
garden.  The  old  gardener  opposed  this,  and  told  his  master  that  he  knew 
"  the  stuff  was  good  for  nothing,  because,  when  he  was  a  boy,  his  old 
master  (Mr.  Cocke's  father)  had  used  some  at  Bonaccord,  and  it  had. never 
done  the  least  good."  Being  asked  whether  he  could  show  the  spot  when' 
this  trial  had  been  made,  he  answered  that  he  could  easily,  as  he  drove  the 
cart  which  carried  out  the  marl.  The  place  was  immediately  sought. 
It  was  on  the  moat  elevated  part  of  a  very  poor  field,  which  had  been  clear- 
ed and  exhausted  fully  a  century  before.  The  marled  space  (a  square  of 
about  half  an  acre)  though  still  poor,  was  at  least  twice  as  productive  as 
the  surrounding  land,  though  a  slight  manuring  from  the  farm-yard  had 
been  applied  a  few  years  before  to  the  surrounding  land,  and  omitted  on 
this  spot,  which  was  supposed,  from  its  appearance,  to  have  been  the  site 
of  some  former  dwelling  house  and  yard,  of  which  every  trace  had 
disappeared  except  the  permanent  improvement  of  the  soil  usual  from  that 
cause.  A  close  examination  showed  some  fragments  of  the  hardest  shells 
remaining,  so  as  to  prove  that  the  old  man  had  not  mistaken  the  spot. 
This,  like  other  early  applications,  had  been  made  on  ground  too  poor  for 
the  marl  to  show  but  very  slight  early  effect ;  and  as  only  one  kind  of  opera- 
tion of  any  manure  was  then  thought  of,  (that  which  dung  produces,)  it  is 
not  strange  that  both  the  master  and  servant  should  have  agreed  in  the 
opinion  that  the  application  was  useless,  and  that  all  persons  who  knew  of 


236  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

the  application  remained  under  that  opinion  until  almost  all  remembrance  of 
the  experiment  had  been  lost 

Since  the  printing  of  the  previous  pages  in  which  references  were 
made  to  the  earliest  application  of  marl  in  Virginia,  I  have  obtained  some 
further  information  thereupon,  which,  however  imperfect,  may  yet  be 
interesting.  In  a  recent  conversation  (1842)  with  William  Short,  esq.,  now 
of  Philadelphia,  the  son  of  Major  William  Short  who  made  the  experiment, 
he  told  me  that  he  well  recollected  when  his  father's  first  and  acciden- 
tal discovery  of  marl  was  made  on  the  Spring  Garden  farm  in  Surry, 
(in  digging  a  ditch  across  a  wet  swamp,)  and  his  sanguine  and  con- 
fident anticipations  of  deriving  from  its  use  great  improvement  and  profit. 
Mr.  Short  further  stated  that  he  was  then  so  young,  and  always  so  litttle 
acquainted  with  agriculture,  that  he  did  not  know  what  were  the  precise 
facts  in  regard  to  the  failure  of  his  father's  experiment  and  hopes ;  but  he 
well  remembers  that  the  result  was  deemed  an  entire  failure,  and  that  it 
caused  total  disappointment. 

Such  a  conclusion  I  had  supposed  before  being  so  informed.  I  had  also 
inferred,  and  no  doubt  correctly,  that  the  supposed  failure  and  truly  slight 
benefit,  and  the  mistaken  deductions  from  the  results,  were  such  as  have 
been  stated.  I  have  since  written  to  the  present  proprietor  of  the  land, 
Francis  Ruffin,  esq.,  to  obtain  the  latest  information  concerning  the  results 
of  this  application,  now  some  sixty-five  years  old ;  and  the  most  recent 
effects,  as  learned  from  him,  will  be  here  stated  in  connexion  with  the  earlier, 
which  will  be  repeated. 

It  was  before  said  (page  70)  that  this  old  marling  (of  about  10  acres) 
was  done  on  poor  sandy  land,  kept  (as  was  the  then  universal  course  of 
tillage)  under  exhausting  culture  and  close  grazing  for  many  years  there- 
after;  that  from  1812  the  treatment  had  been  lenient;  and  that  in  1819, 
the  superiority  of  the  marled  part  was  visible,  and  that  part  of  the  outline 
could  be  then  distinctly  traced.  In  1834,  Mr.  F.  Ruffin  applied  to  this  and 
some  acres  of  adjoining  land,  pine  leaves  at  the  rate  of  75  one-horse  cart  loads 
to  the  acre.  The  benefit  from  this  vegetable  cover  was  so  much  greater 
on  the  marled  part,  that  the  superior  growth  of  the  next  crop  of  corn  and 
of  the  succeeding  crop  of  wheat,  "marked  out  the  limits  of  the  old  marling 
very  conspicuously."  The  whole  was  sown  in  clover  in  the  spring  while 
under  wheat ;  that  on  the  marled  part  lived  and  stood  pretty  well,  while 
nearly  every  plant  of  clover  on  the  part  not  marled  died  in  the  course  of  the 
year.  In  1837,  the  whole  field  was  marled,  without  excepting  the  old  marl- 
ed part ;  and  the  whole  was  again  littered  with  pine  leaves.  The  crops  of 
corn  and  wheat  since  have  shown  less  improvement  from  these  applications 
on  the  piece  thus  re-marled,  than  on  the  adjoining  land  then  marled  for  the 
first  time.  Indeed,  the  recent  and  additional  increase  of  corn  and  wheat, 
since  re-marling  has  been  very  little.  These  results,  early  and  late,  are  pre- 
cisely such  as  might  have  been  anticipated  from  the  action  of  calcareous 
manures,  and  the  condition  of  this  land  and  its  management. 

Another  experiment  of  marling,  made  earlier  than  my  first,  by  Mr.  Rich- 
ard Hill,  in  King  William  county,  has  been  heard  of  since  the  publication  of 
the  last  edition,  and  of  which  the  circumstances  were  given  at  length  at 
pages  22  and  27  of  vol.  ix.  Farmers'  Register,  to  which  the  reader  is 
referred.  It  is  enough  here  to  state,  that  the  effects  were  beneficial  at  first ; 
but  so  injurious  (because  of  the  excessive  quantity)  on  several  succeeding 
crops,  that  this  trial  also  was  deemed  a  failure,  and  the  marling  a  source  of 
loss;  and  there  was  no  repetition  of  marling  in  that  neighborhood  until 
about  1820,  when  other  and  better  views  began  there  to  be  first  entertained. 

There  was  also  successful  and  continued  use  of  this  manure  in  Jame» 


OaACAREO  237 

city  county,  in  Virginia,  made  earlier  than  mine;  and  still  earlier  by  the 
Rev.  John  Singleton,  In  onty,  Maryland.     It  appears  that  the 

early  (though  cbance-dl  bination  of  putrescent   manures  witli 

marl,  in  both  these  place  the  value  of  the  latter,  and  per- 

haps tu  prevent  it  being  there  also  abandoned  as  i  ih  the  other 

cases.     Bui  "ccess 

an<l  profit,  the  knowledge  of  these  facts  and  the  exsjnple  extended  very 
slowly;  and  the  then  wanl  of  communication  am 
norant  of  these  practices  for  years,  except  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
commencement  of  each.     1  have  since  endeavored  to  ascertain  the  i 
the  first  applications  in  James  City,  and  have  been  Informed  that  it  .. 
1816.    Mr.  Singleton's,  in  Maryland,  were  begun  as  early  as  ISU5.     His 
own  account  of  his  practice  (which  will  be  annexed,  as  an  interestin.tr  state- 
ment of  the  earliest  profitable  use  of  this  manure.)  was  first  published   in 
IMS   in  the    Ith   volume  of  the   Memoir-:  of  the   Philadelphia  Agricultural 
Sociel  -  i    The  ii.it.  .  31,  1817. 

periment  was  made  the  following  month,  (Jan!  I^ltf.)  but  more  than  a  year 
before  I  met  with  Mr.  Singleton's  publication,  or  had  heard  of  any  applica- 
tion of  fossil  shells,  except  the  two  failures  mentioned  In  page  70.  But, 
howevi  ial  may  have  been  found  the  operation  of  mart  in  Talbot 

and  in  .lames  (ity.it  is  evident,  from  Mr.   Singleton's  letter,  and  from  all 
other  sources  of  information,  that  the  mode  of  operation  ren  ained  ;< 
ther  unsuspected  by  those  who  used  it ;  and  this  was  perhaps  the  prii 
cause  why  the  praol  slow  in  spreading.     It  is  now  [ISo5]  thirty 

years  since  the  first  proofs   were  exl 

yet,  according  to  the  report  of  the  geological  survey  of  the  lower  part  of 
Maryland,  (submitted  to  tin'  legist]  itui  ol  Maryland  at  its  recent  session  of 
1834-5.)  it  appears,  though  the  value  of  marl  is  well  understood,  and 
much  use  of  it  made  in  Talbot, county,  and  part  of  Queen  Ann's  county, 
yet  that  almost  no  use  has  been  made  of  it  on  the  other  and  much 
more  extensive  parts  of  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland— and  none  what- 
ever west  of  the  <  hesape.  Ice  in  thai  il  is  found  in  abundance. 
Such  at  least  are  the  inferences  from  Mr,  Ducstel's  report,  though  in  part 
drawn  from  indirect  testimony,  more  than  direct  and   particular  assertions. 

The  slight,  and  almost  contemptuous  manner,  in  which  mail  Is  i 
by  so  well  informed  an  agriculturist  as  Taylor,  as  late  as  1814, -when  his 

/■  was  published,   (and  which  remained    unaltered  in  his    -'•' 
1817,)  proves  that   almost   nothing   was  then   known  of  the   value  of  this 
manure.     All  that  seems  to  relate  to  our  abundant  deposites  of  fossil  shells, 
or  to  marl  generally,  in  the  two  following  passages: 

•■  Without  new   accessions  ofve  etable  n  dress- 

ings with  lime,  gypsum,  and  even  marl,  have  been  frequently  found  to  ter- 
minate in  impoverishment  Hence  it  is  inferred,  that  minerals  operate  as 
an  excitement  only  to  the  manure  furnished  by  the  i  From  this 

fact  results  the  impossibility  of  removing  an  exhausted  soil,  by  resorting  to 
fossils,  which  will  expel   the  poor  remnant  of  life;  and  indeed  it  is  hardly 
probable  that  divine  wisdom  ha-*  lodged  ;''■■  thi 
neeeuary  for  its  aurj ace." — AreU  B 

"Of  lime  and   marl    we   have    an    abundance,   but  ex] 
entitle  me   to  say  any  thing  Of  either." 

From  the  P-r.  Joht 

"  Your  first  question  it,  •  whether  •vlmt  1  u*  .nit-  •' 

••  Whether  it   be  marl  or   not,  I  will  not  pretend  to  determine,  as   I  have  seen   no  Je- 

30 


238 


CALCAREOUS  MANU11ES— APPENDIX. 


scription  of  marl  that  answers  exactly  to  it ;  but  Mr.  Tench  Tilghinan  informed  me  he 
had  seen  a  description  01  marl  used  in  Scotland,  exactly  similar  to  what  1  use  on  the  farm 
OB  which  I  reside,  and  which  is  the  unproved  land  you  mention.  I  have  not  seen  the 
account  myself.  However,  this,  and  all  mixtures  of  broken  marine  shells,  ol  which 
there  is  a  great  variety,  are  now  denominated  marl,  here.  What  I  consider  the  best, 
and  which  I  most  use,  is  composed  of  small  parts  of  marine  shells,  chiefly  scallop  SQi  II. 
about  one  eighth  of  an  inch  square,  or  somewhat  longer  or  smaller,  with  scarce  any  sand 
orsoil  wilh  it  :   some  of  it  seems  to  be   petrified,  .  in  lumps,  like  stone, 

from  four  or  five,  to  forty  01  6ft)  pounds  in  weight,  hard  to  break  even  with  the  edge  of 
an  axe,  and  will  remai  nbled  about  with  the  plough,  before  it  is  euurely 

broken  to  pieces,  and  mixed  with  the  soil  ;  indeed  you  may  observe  it  in  some  parts  of 
the  bank,  where  ihe  soil  has  been  washed  from  it,  appearing  like  rock  stone  ;  but  if 
broken  Snd  pulverized  a  little,  il  very  much  with  acids.     "  *      • 

"  I  have  applied  it  to  all  the  soils  on  my  farm,  some  of  which  i?  a  cold  white  clay,  and 
wet;  others  a  light  loam,  and  sandy.  I  find  it  useful  to  each  kind,  and  manure  my  land 
all  over  with  it,  without  distinction,  and  to  advantage  ;  putting  a  smaller  quantity  upon  the 
looser  soils.  I  have  applied  it  as  a  top  dressing  on  clover,  and  also  where  cloier  has  not 
been  sown,  with  a  view  to  improving  the  grass,  and  also  lo  be  satisfied  whether  it  would 
not  be  best  for  the  ground,  to  let  it  he  spread  on  the  snrface,  for  a  year  belore  the  ground 
was  put  into  cultivation.  But  il  has  not  answered  my  expectation.  I  could  not  perceive 
any  advantage  from  that  mode  of  application.  I  now  constantly  apply  it  to  the  grouud 
cultivated  in  corn  ;  carting  it  out  in  the  winter  and  spring,  and  putting  on  from  twenty  to 
forty  cartloads  per  acre,  according  to  the  ground,  and  the  previous  quantity  that  had  been 
put  on,  in  former  cultivations,  dividing  each  load  into  from  four  to  eight  small  heaps,  for 
the  greater  ease  in  spreading,  according  to  the  size  of  the  load.  Some  is  put  on  before, 
and  some  after  the  ground  is  broken  up,  but  it  is  all  worked  into  the  soil  by  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  coin,  and  it  never  fails  of  considerably  improving  the  crop  ol  corn,  as  also  the 
ground  wherever  the  marl  is,  especially  In  largest  quantity.  There  is  a  small  green  moss, 
and  black  moist  appearance,  on  the  surface  of  ihe  ground,  when  not  cultivated  ;  asyoii 
perceive  about  old  walls,  and  in  strong  ground.  Though  the  preceding  is  the  common 
mode  in  which  1  use  the  marl,  I  do  not  think  it  the  best ;  1  mix  some  in  my  larm  yaid, 
with  the  farm  yard  and  stable  manure  ;  and  would  prelei  mixing  and  applj  mg  all  that  I 
use  thus  mixed,   but  for  the  labor  of  double    carl  1 1  cannot  i  I  yet  accomplish, 

manuring;  so  largely  as  I  do.  I  cultivate  one  hundred  acres  yearly,  and  constantly  man- 
ure the  whole  ol  what  I  cultivate;  employing  only  four  carts,  and  lour  hands  with  the 
carts,  which  do  all  the  manuring  and  carting  on  the  farm. 

•'  Your  next  question  is,  'what  has  been  my  rotation  of  crops,  and  mode  of  cultivating, 
since  I  have  used  this  manure :' 

"  Since  I  began  to  use  the  marl,  and  bend  my  attention  to  improvement  by  manure,  I 
have  cultivated  only  corn  and  wheat,  sowing  my  ground  in  clover,  and  using  the  plaster. 
Instead  of  cultivating  all  my  ground  in  corn,  and  sowing  wheat  on  it  as  heretofore,  I 
divided  my  cultivation  into  two  parts,  of  fifty  acres  each,  putting  one  part  into  corn, 
which  I  was  able  to  accomplish  manuring  time  enough  for  Ihe  coin,  and  making  a  fallow 
of  the  other  part,  manuring  as  much  of  it  as  I  could  accomplish  belore  the  time  for  sow- 
ing wheat;  and  disregarding,  in  a  degree,  all  smallercrops,  which  I  could  not  attend  to, 
as  an  object,  without  increasing  my  number  of  hands,  and  interfering  with  the  main 
business.  I  went  on  in  this  manner,  till  I  found  I  could  easily  accomplish  manuring  one 
hundred  acres  and  upwards,  per  annum.  Having  got  my  ground  to  that  stale  that  t  tan 
risk  making  a  crop  without  manure,  I  am  n  aiding  fallow,  being  able  to 

manure  my  whole  hunched  acies  time  em  ugh  for  cropping  in  the  spring,  by  beginning  to 
manure  for  the  next  year  as  soon  as  the  spring  manuring  is  finished.  I  shall  in  future 
have  no  wheat  in  fallow,  but  sow  it  alter  corn  and  other  crops,  from  which  I  am  satisfied 
I  can  make  more  from  my  ground  than  by  naked  tallow,  which  f  always  considered  un- 
profitable, though  you  made  more  wheat,  except  for  the  advantage  of  having  more  time 
to  manure.  •«•*•« 

"  In  saving  my  corn  crop,  I  cut  it  up  without  pulling  it  from  the  stalk  as  usual,  and  cart 
it  in  all  together,  tiien  husk  it  out,  leaving  the  husk  to  the  stalk  :  I  lay  these  near  my 
feeding  yard,  and  throw  them  into  it  twice  a  .1 1\  ;  this  gives  us  a  large  quantity  of  strong 
healthy  food  for  the  catlle,  which  serves  tbem  :  d  keeps  them  in  good  condi- 

tion without  any  other  food  ;  makes  a  large  quantity  ol  i  xcellent  manure,  and  a  fine  dry 
feeding  yard.  As  opportunity  can  he  found,  we  cait  marl,  luller's  earth,  clay,  and  any 
good  soil  that  is  convenient,  into  this  yaid,  which  being  mixed  with  the  stalks,  and 
straw,  or  any  thing  else,  penning  the  cattle  on  it  through  the  winter  and  summer,  instead 
of  penning  on  the  field,  in  the  common  way.  we  have  a  large  quantity  of  manure  to  go 
out  in  the  fall,  and  next  winter  ;  it  is  put  into  the  field,  in  the  intermediate  rows,  be- 
tween the  rows  of  marl,  as  far  as  it  will  go,  and  they  will  get  mixed  in  the  cultivation. 
We  also  convert  the  scouring  of  our  ditches,  the  headlands  of  the  fields,  and  all  waste- 
ground  that  we  can,  into  manure,  by  carting  litter,  from  the  woods,  yard   manure,  or 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES    -APPENDIX.  o;ji. 

litter,   8tc.,  an- 1   mixing   with  them  ;   so  Unit  1   can   nearly,  or  quite,  now,  accom- 
plish making  fexm-yard  and  this  kind  ol  manure,  sufficient  I  whole  hundred 
r  file  two  last  yeai   ,1                                      ■  ■■•  than  1  could  accom- 
pli h  or  effect  carrying  out,  tl                                               n  to  twenty  acres   more  than 
my  hoi                        r.  with  part  marl  and  pari  [arm-yard,  hut  not  the  whole  with  both, 
us  I  hope  to  he  able  to  ilu  in  liiture  :  but  it  will  he  necessary  to  inci  ing  force 
ly  see  I  can  raise  sufficient-manure  to  I 
my  corn-ground,  fifty  acres,  with  marl,  ami  my  fallow  with  pari  t  inn  yard 
manure,  anil  part  marl,  as  mentioned  before  ;  so  that  \  ou  « 
made  on  my  soil  has  not  been  effected  by  marl  alone,  but  in  conjui 

manure,  clover  and  plaster,  ■-..  it    a  point  to  m  ■  all' the 

ground  I  put  into  cultivation  ;  so  that  every  time  I  cultivated  a  field,  thai  Geld  .■ 

SI,  and  not  many  degree  impoverished  by  Ibe  cultivation.     B  ind  the 

ivine  assistance,  1  have  effected  that  improvement  of  my  farm,  which  is  so   very  strik- 
ing lo  the  observation  ol  acquainted  with  it.  ... 

"  In  August,  1805,  i  vn  a  bank  on  the  side  of  a  cove,  for  the   purpose  of 

making;  a  causeway,  1  >,  wbicb  it  struck  improve 

clay  soil  ;  I  took  some  of  it  immediately  to  the  house,  and  putting  it  into  a  glass,  with 
vinegar,  (bund  it  effervesced  very  much  ;  this  determined  me  to  try  it  as  a  manure  ; 
accordingly,  in  September,  I  carted  out  about  eight}  and  put  it  on  a  piece  of 

ground,  fallow,  preparing  for  wheat,  trying  it  in  different  proportions,  at  the  rat?  of  from 
twenty-Seven  to  about  a  hundred  loads  per  acre,  and  the  ground  was  sown  in  wheat.  I 
could  not,  myself,  be  satisfied  that  there  was  eu  through   the  winl 

spring,  although  General  Lloyd,,who  I  with  me  in  the  spring,  thought  be 

could  perceive  some  difference  in  favor  of  the  marl  ;  but  at  harvi  wheat, 

not  more  luxuriant  ingrowth,  6r  better  bead;  wasconsid  on  the 

ground  ;  and  after  tl  i  .  go  put 

was  set  with  white  clover,  no  ■  either  side  of  il      The  next 

year,  1S06,  I  discovered  it  in  the  drain  into  cove,  which  I  immediately 

ditched,  and  from  the  ditch  put  out  seven  hundred  loads,  on  the  fallow  ground,  fhe 
eii'ei't.  us  to  the  wheal  and   cl<  at  the 

:  was  not 
ot  the  same  kind  as  the  other,  but  more   mixed  "ill 

from  the  low  ground,  by  ditching,  and  all  mix  n  corn  "ground, 

spread  oul  as  above    m  immediate,  as  to   the  com  ;    , 

the  same  manner  as  above  described,  as  to  the  wheat  sown  on  the  coin  ground.  This 
induced  me  to  persevere  in  the  use  of  it,  which  I   !  ever  since,  adopting  the 

mode  I  mentioned  before,  and  putting  it  at  first  from  forty  ;  per  acre,  till 

I  have  now  come  down  as  low  as  eighteen  or  twenty  loads  per  acre,  going  the  third  time 
over  the  ground  with  it.  •••.... 


NOTE  VI. 

riRST  VIEWS  WHICH  LEU  TO  MM1LINT,  l\    PRINCE  CEORGE  COUNTY. 

{From  the  Farmers'  Register,  Nov.,  1539.) 

Among  the  persons  who  have'  read  with  Inl  ssay  on  ( lalcareens 

Manures' and  have  received  as  sound  the  novel  I 
maintained,  several  have  expressed  their  furiosity  which  had 

to  learn  tl artiest  facts,  or  the  train  of  reasoning,  which  led  to  the 

gestion  of  the  cause  of  the  defect  of  natural!  .  and  the  ren 

Such  inquiries  have  been  made  of  the  writer  by  persons  of  investigating 
and  wi  minds,  but  of  very  different  education  and  pursuits;  and 

they  were  pleased  to  say,  in  regard  te  thi 
to  their  inquiries,  that  they  da 
many,  and  that  If  given  to  the  public,  theV  might 

consideration  and  enforcement  of  the  doctrines,  than  had,  been  done  by  the 
mere  arguments  which  had  hem  already  published,  convincing  as  they  con- 
sidered the  arguments  to  be. 


240  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 

Though,  without  these  reasons  and  solicitations,  the  writer  might  have 
still  refrained  from  touching  this  subject,  it  was  not  that  he  had  not  held  the 
same  opinion,  and,  except  in  his  own  case,  would  have  urged  the  same  course. 
It  is  certain,  that  the  tracing  of  the  steps  by  which  any  new  discovery  or 
improvement  is  reached,  must  always  be  interesting  in  proportion  to  the 
admitted  importance  of  the  results;  and  indeed  such  a  statement  seems 
almost  necessary  "to  induce  the  reader  to  accompany  the  author  from  his  first 
premises  to  the  remote  conclusion,  and  which  otherwise  is  only  reached 
;h  a  devious  and  tedious  passage,  and  by  a  course  of  reasoning  which 
is  wanting  in  interest,  because  the  application  and  tendency  of  the  argu- 
ments and  pi  oofs  a>e  not  seen  when  they  are  first  presented.  The  objection 
which  restrained  the  writer  from  before  pursuing  a  course  which  he  would 
have  highly  approved  in  others,  was,  that  such  a  narrative  of  opinions  and 
facts  would  be  entirely  a  personal  narrative,  and  therefore  obnoxious  to  the 
charge  of  egotism  throughout.  The  statement  of  the  reasoning  which  led 
to  the  successful  use  of  fossil  shells  on  the  poor  lands  of  lower  Virginia, 
would  be  incomplete  if  not  accompanied  by  a  narrative  of  early  labors,  and 
the  early  as  well  as  latest  results  and  effects.  In  the  whole  of  this,  there 
would  be  scarcely  an)'  thing  but  statements  of  what  the  writer  thought,  and 
reasoned,  and  performed.  But  the  subject  must  be  so  treated,  or  not  at  all ; 
and  having  consented  to  give  the  narrative,  the  writer  will  throw  aside  all 
scruples  and  objections,  and  endeavor  to  enter  as  much  into  detail,  as  he, 
if  a  reader  of  others'  agricultural  improvements  and  practical  operations, 
would  desire  there  to  find. 

With  the  beginning  of  the  year  1813,  when  barely  nineteen  years  of  age, 
the  easy  indulgence  of  my  guardian  gave  to  me  the  possession  and  direction 
of  my  property ;  which  consisted  of  the  Coggins  Point  farm,  with  the  neces- 
sary and  yet  very  insufficient  stock  of  every  kind.  It  is  scarcely  necessary 
to  add  that,  at  my  very  early  commencement,  I  was  totally  ignorant  of  prac- 
tical agriculture ;  and  such  would  have  been  the  case,  according  to  the  then 
and  now  usual  want  of  training  of  farmers  of  Virginia,  even  if  my  farming 
labors  had  been  postponed  to  a  mature  age.  But  I  had  always  been  fond  of 
reading  for  amusement,  and  the  few  books  on  agriculture  which  I  had  met 
with  had  been  studied,  merely  for  the  pleasure  they  afforded,  at  a  still  ear- 
lier time  of  my  boyhood.  The  earliest  known  of  these  works  was  an 
English  book,  in  four  volumes,  the  'Complete  Body  of  Husbandry,'  of  which 
I  have  not  seen  the  only  known  copy  since  I  was  fifteen  years  old.  This 
work  was  probably  a  mere  compilation,  and  of  little  value  or  authority ;  but 
it  ^ave  me  a  fondness  for  agricultural  studies,  and  filled  my  head  with 
notions  which  were,  even  if  proper  in  England,  totally  unsuitable  to  this 
country.  '  Bordley's  Husbandry'  next  fell  into  my  hands,  and  its  contents 
were  as  srreedily  devoured.  This  was  indeed  written  in  America,  and  by 
an  American  cultivator ;  but  as  he  drew  almost  all  his  notions  from  English 
writers,  his  work  is  essentially  also  of  foreign  materials. 

Thus  prepared,  I  commenced  farming,  ignorant  indeed,  but  not  in  my 
own  conceit.  The  agriculture  of  my  neighborhood,  like  all  that  I  had  ever 
witnessed,  was  wretched  in  execution,  and  as  erroneous  as  well  could  be  in 
system,  whether  subjected  to  the  test  of  sound  doctrine,  or  the  improper 
notions  which  I  had  formed  from  English  writers.  I  was  right  in  condemn- 
ing the  general  practice  of  my  neighbors ;  but  decidedly  mistaken  in  my 
self-satisfied  estimate  of  my  own  better  information  and  plans. 

Just  about  the  time  that  my  business  as  a  cultivator  was  commenced, 
Col.  John  Taylor's  'Arator'  was  published;  and  never  has  any  book  on 
agriculture  been  received  with  so  much  enthusiastic  applause,  nor  has  any 


CALCARKoi  g  man;  RES— APPENDIX.  '2  41 

Other  bad  such  wide-spread  early  effects  in  affecting  opinion,  and  stimulating 
to  exertion  and  attempts  for  improvement   The  groun  i  had  before  no  occu- 
pant, and  therefore  this  work  had  to  contend  with  no  rival.    The  li 
land-owners,  of  lower  Virginia  especially,  had  previously  treated  their  own 
proper  I  Hal  neglect;  and 

very  few  country  gentlemen  took  any  personal  and  regular  direction  of 
their  farming  operations.  It  was  considered  enough  for  them  to  hire  over- 
seers, [and  that  class  then  was  greatly  inferior  in  grade  and  respectability  to 
what  it  is  now,)  and  to  lily  s  iperintendence  to  them  entirely. 

The  agricultural  practices,  and  also  the  products,  were  consequently,  and 
almost  universally,  at  a  very  low  ebb.  The  work  of  Taylor  appeared  when 
these  evils  had  become  manifest ;  and  it  was  received  with  a  welcome  which 
in  warmth  was  proportioned  to  the  magnitude  of  the  evil,  and  to  the  exag- 
geration of  the  promises  of  speedy  and  effectual  remedy  which  the  author 
.  with  entire  good  faith  no  doubt,  but  which  proved  any  thjng  but 
true  to  the  great  majority  of  his  sanguine  followers. 

of  course,  I  was  among  the  most  enthusiastic  admirers  of  '  Arator :'  and 
not  only  received  as  sound  an  1  true  every  opinion  and  precept,  but  even 
went  beyond  the  author's  intention,  (perhaps,)  and  applied  his  rules  for 
tillage  to  lands  of  surface  and  soil  altogether  different  from  the  level  and 
originally  rich  sandy  soils  of  the  Rappahannock,  where  his  labors  and  system 
had  been  so  successful.  However,  this  error  was  by  no  means  confined 
to  myself;  for  his  other  disciples  fully  as  much  misunderstood  the  directions, 
and  misapplied  the  practices. 

It  was  my  main  object  to  enrich  my  then  very  poor  land;  and  for  that, 
Taylor  offered  means  that  seemed  to  be  sure  and  speedy.  According  to  his 
.  it  was  only  necessary  to  protect  the  arable  land  from  all  grazing,  and 
thus  let  the  vegetable  cover  of  the  land,  when  resting,  serve  as  manure— to 
plough  deep,  and  in  ridges— to  convert  all  the  corn-stalks  and  other  offal 
to  manure,  and  plough  it  under,  unrotted,  for  the  corn — to  put  the  farm 
under  clover  as  fist  as  manured— and  the  desired  result  would  be  sure.  I 
hoped  at  first  to  be  able  to  manure,  say  10  or  12  acres  a  year  very  heavily, 
with  the  barn-yard  manure,  and  expected  that  such  manuring  would  give 
a  crop  of  50  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre.  The  space,  so  enriched,  when  in 
the  succeeding  crop  of  wheat,  would  be  laid  under  clover—  and  its  acquired 
productiveness  be  made  permanent,  by  the  lenient  rotation  of  two  crops 
only  taken  from  the  land  in  four  years.  But  utter  disappointment  followed. 
The  manure  was  put  on  the  poorest  (and  naturally  poor)  land ;  and  it 
produced  very  little  of  the  expected  effect  in  the  first  course  of  crops,  and 
in  the  second.  Glover  could  not  be  made  to 
live  on  land  of  this  kind ;  and  even  on  much  better,  or  where  more 
enriched,  it  was  a  very  precarious  crop,  and  which,  where  the  growth  was 
best,  was  certain  to  yield  the  entire  occupancy  of  the  ground  to  natural 
weeds  after  one  year.  The  general  non-grazing  of  the  fields  under  grass, 
or  rather  under  weeds,  produced  no  visible  enriching  effect,  and  the 
ploughing  of  hilly  land  (as  mine  mostly  was)  into  ridges,  caused  the  most 
destructive  washing  away  of  the  soil  by  heavy  rains.  These  results  were 
not  speedily  made  manifest;  and  before  being  convinced  of  their  certainty, 
1  had  labored  for  four  or  five  years  in  using  these  means  of  supposed  im- 
provement of  the  soil,  but  all  of  which  proved  either  profitless,  entirely 
useless,  or  absolutely  and  in  some  cases  greatly  injurious.  And  even  after 
trying  to  avoid  the  first  known  errors,  and  using  all  other  supposed  means 
for  giving  durable  and  increasing  fertility  to  my  worn  and  poor  fields,  at 
the  end  of  six  years,  instead  of  having  already  achieved  great  improve- 
ment, I  was  compelled  to  confess  that  no  part  of  my  poor  land  was  more 


242  CALCAREOUS    MANURES— APPENDIX. 

productive  than  when  my  labors  ommenced,  and  that  on  much  of  it,  a 
ten-fold  increase  had  been  made  of  t  le  previously  large  space  of  galled  and 
gullied  hill-sides  and  slopes. 

When  more  correct  opinions  had  been  formed  in  after-time  of  the  actual 
condition  and  requirements  of  such  poor  soils,  it  seemed  an  astonishing  delu- 
sion, which  wuuld  have  been  altogether  ludicrous  but  for  its  serious  effects, 
that  I  should  have  counted  so  much  on  improving  such  a  soil,  and  by  such 
means.  With  the  exception  of  a  smsll  part  near  the  river  banks,  (perhaps 
one-fifth  of  the  then  cleared  and  cultivated  land,)  which  had  been  originally 
of  very  fine  quality,  and,  however  abused  and  exhausted,  was  still  good 
land,  the  farm  generally  consisted  of  a  soil  of  sandy  loam,  usually  about 
three  inches  deep,  and  through  which  a  single-horse  plough  could  easily 
penetrate  and  turn  up  the  barren  and  more  sandy  subsoil.  Grazing  the 
fields,  when  not  under  tillage,  had  been  the  regular  practice ;  and  under  it 
very  little  growth  was  to  be  seen  except  the  light  and  diminutive  "  hen's 
nest  grass,"  which  formed  the  almost  universal  cover  of  the  poor  fields  of 
lower  Virginia,  in  the  intervals  between  tillage.  Add  to  these  circumstances 
of  very  poor  and  shallow  soil,  and  barren  and  sandy  subsoil,  and  almost 
no  vegetable  cover  to  turn  under,  that  every  field  was  more  or  less  hilly, 
and  liable  to  be  washed  by  heavy  rains— and  the  judicious  reader  will  see 
nothing  but  false  confidence  and  ignorance  displayed  in  my  bold  adoption 
of  Taylor's  system.  Nor  was  I  convinced  of  my  error  until  after  nearly 
all  the  fields  had  been  successively  thrown  into  ridges  by  two-horse  ploughs, 
and  all  the  hilly  and  more  slightly  inclined  surface  had  been  awfully  washed 
and  gullied,  by  the  exposure  of  the  loose  sub-soil  to  the  action  of  the 
streams  of  rain-water. 

While  these  my  supposed  measures  of  improvement  were  in  progress, 
I  was  in  habits  of  frequent  and  familiar  intercourse  with  my  oldest  and  best 
friend,  and  former  guardian,  Thomas  Cocke,  who  resided  then  on  his  Aber- 
deen farm,  and  since  and  now,  on  Tarbay,  adjoining  my  own  land.  .'.  y 
friend  wras  a  man  for  whose  mind  and  mental  cultivation  I  could  not  but 
entertain  a  very  high  estimation.  But  though  all  his  life  a  practical  and 
assiduous  cultivator,  and  finding  his  greatest  pleasure  in  his  farming  labors, 
he  yet  was  a  careless,  slovenly,  and  bad  manager,  and  of  course  an  un- 
profitable farmer.  Therefore,  on  this  subject,  I  held  in  but  light  esteem  the 
opinions  which  he  maintained,  which  were  opposed  to  my  own.  One  of 
these,  (and  which  he  had  first  gathered  from  some  old  and  ignorant,  but 
experienced  practical  cultivators  of  his  neighborhood,)  was  the  opinion  that 
our  land  which  was  naturally  poor  could  not  "hull  manure,"  to  any  extent 
or  profit,  and  therefore  could  not  be  enriched.  For  years  I  heard  this 
opinion  frequently  expressed  by  him,  and  the  evident  inference  therefrom, 
that  the  far  greater  part  of  our  lands,  and  of  the  whole  country,  was  doomed 
to  hopeless  sterility;  and  as  often  as  heard,  I  rejected  it  as  a  monstrous 
agricultural  heresy— as  treason,  indeed,  to  the  authority  of  Taylor,  and  of 
every  other  author  on  agriculture  whom  I  had  read  or  heard  of.  But  at 
last  I  was  compelled,  most  reluctantly,  to  concur  in  this  opinion. 

What  was  then  to  be  done !  I  could  not  bear  the  idea  of  pursuing  the 
general  system  of  the  country  in  continuing  to  lessen  the  aheady  small 
productiveness  of  my  fields,  by  their  course  of  cultivation.  The  whole 
income,  and  more,  was  required  for  the  most  economical  support  of  a  then 
small  but  fast  growing  family  ;  and  fir  any  increase  of  income  or  net  profit, 
there  was  no  hope,  save  in  the  universal  approved  resort,  in  all  such  cases, 
of  emigrating  to  the  rich  western  wilderness.  And  accordingly  such  be- 
came my  intention,  fully  considered  and  decided  upon,  and  which  was  only 
prevented  being  carried  into  effect  by  subsequent  occurrences. 


CALCAB1  01       M  \  ■'  2  13 

Just  before  this  time  Davy's  'Agricultural  chemistry'  had  been  published 
in  this  country  ;  sod  1  read  it  with  delight,  notwithstanding  my  then  total 
ignorai  imical    names,  except  as 

learned  bytbat  perusal.  There  wasoni  this  author  which  seenMR 

to  pro  ipe  on  the  point  in  h  hich  disappoint- 

ment had  lt\l  me  to  despair.  imical 

constitution  of  soils,  and  ol  lich  proper  investigation! 

point  out,  he  adduced  life  fact  of  a  soil  "of  good  apparent  texture," 
was  sterile,  an  ile  of  being  enriched.    The  fact  which  struck 

on  my  mind  was  presented  in  the  following  •  ta ire  of 

Lect  iv.    "If  on  wi  inalyzing  ,  a  sterile  soil,  it  is  mtain 

.i  of  iron,  or  any  acid  matter,  il 

tion  of  quick-lime.    A  soil  of  good  apparent  texture  re,  was 

put  into  my  bands  by  Sir  Joseph  Banks  as  remarkable  for  sterility,    on 

ining  it,  1  found  that  it  contained  sulphate  of  iron:  and  I  offered  the 

ius  remedy  ol  top-dressing  with  lime,  which  converts  the  sulphate  into 

a  manure." 

iMuch  the  greater  part  oC  my  ret  Virginia, 

seemed  to  me  just  such  as  Davy  descried  in  this  single  and  peculiar  soil. 
It  was  certainly  oi  parent  texture,"  that  is.it  was  neither  much 

t  «i  clayey  or  too  sandy,  nor  had  it  any  other  apparent  defect  to  forbid  its 
being  fertile  in  a  very  high  degree.  Yet  it  was  and  always  had  been  sterile, 
and,  as  my  experience  now  concurred  with  tl  at  of  my  older  friend  in  show- 
ing, it  could  not  be  either  durably  or  profitably  em  utrescent  ma- 
nures. CoDld  it  be  possible  Lhat-I  of  iron  (copperas  i  which  Uavy 
found  in  this  soil,  and  which  lie  evidently  spoke  of  as  a  rare  example  of  pe. 
culiar  constitution,  could  exist  in  nineteen  twentieths  of  all  the  lands  of 
lower  Virginia  !  This  could  scarcely  be;  and  yet,  in  despair  of  finding  other 
causes,  I  set  about  searching  for  this  one. 

It  was  not  difficult,  even  for  a  reader  so  little  instructed  in  chemistry,  to 
apply  the  test  for  copperas.  It  was  only  necessary  to  let  a  specimen  of  the 
suspected  soil  remain  soaking  in  pure  water,  until  any  copperas,  if  present, 
would  be  dissolved;  then  to  separate  tin-  fluid  by  pouring  off  and  filtra- 
tion, and  then  to  add  to  the  lluid  some  of  the  infusion  of  nut  galls.  If 
copperas  had  leei#ield  in  solution,  the  mixture  would  produce  a  true  ink, 
of  which  the  smallest  proportion  would  he  made  visible  in  ti.e  before  per- 
fectly transparent  water.  But  all  these  first  attempts  were  fruitless,  and  I 
was  obliged  to  conclude  that  the  great  defect,  or  impediment  to  improve- 
ment, in  most  of  our  soils,  was  sehce  of  the  salts  of  iron.  But 
though  not  a  salt,  of  which  one  of  the  component  parts  was  an  acid,  might 
not  the  poisonous  quality  be  a.  pure  or  uncombined  add}  This  question 
was  raised  in  my  mind,  and  the  readiness  produced  to  suppose  the  affirma- 
tive to  be  true,  by  several  circumstances.  These  were,  1st,  that  certain 
plants  known  to  contain  acid,  as  sheep-sorrel  and  pine,  preferred  these  soils, 
and  in  almost  confined  to  I  iw there  with  luxuriance 
and  \i.  'iied  to  the  unfitness  of  the  land  for  producing  cultivated 
crops.  2nd.  That  of  all  the  soils  supposed  to  be  acid  which  I  examined  by 
chemical  tests,  not  one  contained  any  calcareous  earth.*  3rd.  That  the 
small  proportion  of  my  land,  and  of  all  within  the  range  of  my  observation, 

"  I  was  not  then  aware,  of  the  important  and  novel  fact  which  I  afterwards  ascertained 
and   established,  and  which   U  now   folly  received    (will)  very  slight   acknowledgment 
of  its  source)  by  the   geologists  of  this  country,  that   almost  all  the  soils  on  the  Atlantic 
slope  of  this  country,  and  even  including  Marti  -M  limestone  soils,  are  also  cut 1 1 
slilute  of  carbonate  of  lane.  I!  j  edient  seems  nearly  if  not  quite  Snivel 

all  the  gnod  soils  of  England  and  the  continent  of  Europe. 


244  CALCAREOUS   MANURES— APPENDIX. 

which  was  shelly,  and  of  course  calcareous,  was  entirely  free  from  pine  and 
sorrel,  and  moreover  was  as  remarkable  for  great  and  lasting  fertility,  as 
the  lands  supposed  to  be  acid  for  the  reverse  qualities.  Shells,  or  lime, 
would  necessarily  combine  with,  and  destroy,  all  the  previous  properties  of 
any  acid  placed  in  contact;  and  therefore,  if  acid  were  present  universally, 
and  acting  as  a  poison  to  cultivated  plants,  it  seemed  plain  enough  why  the 
shelly  lands  were  free  from  this  bad  quality,  and  by  its  absence  had  been 
permitted  to  grow  rich,  and  to  continue  productive.  Every  new  observa- 
tion served  to  add  strength  to  this  notion ;  and  in  our  tide-water  region 
generally,  and  even  in  my  own  neighborhood,  there  were  plenty  of  subjects 
for  observation  and  comparison,  both  in  small  shelly  and  fertile  spots,  and 
a  vast  extent  of  poor  pine  and  sorrel-producing  lands.  Still,  1  could  obtain 
no  direct  evidence  of  the  presence  of  acid,  either  free  or  combined,  by  ap- 
plying chemical  tests  to  soils,  (as  was  tried  in  many  cases,)  nor  was  there 
any  authority  in  my  oracle,  Davy's  'Agricultural  Chemistry,'  nor  in  any 
other  work  which  I  had  read,  for  supposing  vegetable  acid  to  be  present  in 
any  soil.  Though  Davy  adds  to  the  supposition,  of  the  , presence  of  the 
"  salt  of  iron,"  "  or  any  acid  matter,"  it  is  clear  from  the  whole  context  that 
he  had  in  view  the  possible  and  extremely  rare  presence  of  a  mineral  acid 
(as  the  sulphuric,)  and  not  vegetable  acid,  which  my  views  required,  and  my 
proofs  were  afterwards  brought  to  maintain.  Sulphuric  acid  is  sometimes 
found  in  certain  clays,  and  in  combination  with  iron  is  also  in  peat  soils ; 
but  these  facts  have  no  application  to  ordinary  soils  of  any  country.  Of 
course,  this  absence  of  authority  would,  to  most  inquirers,  have  seemed 
fatal  to  the  position  of  an  acid  principle  being  generally  present  in  the  soils 
of  Virginia,  and  in  great  quantity  and  power  of  injurious  action.  This 
was,  indeed,  a  great  obstacle  opposed  to  the  establishment  of  my  newly- 
formed  opinion  ;  but  it  was  not  yielded  to  as  insuperable.  Diffident  as  I 
then  was  of  any  such  views  of  my  own,  and  holding  the  dicta  of  Davy  as 
the  highest  authority,  and  even  his  omission  of  any  position  as  evidence 
that  it  was  untrue,  or  unknown,  still  I  was  not  daunted,  and  supposed  it 
possible  that  the  soils  of  this  country  might  vary  essentially  in  composition 
in  this  respect,  from  those  of  England ;  or  barely  possible  that  even  the 
great  chemical  philosopher  might  not  have  observed  the  presence  of 
vegetable  acid  in  the  comparatively  few  cases  of  itsVxistence  in  English 
soils.  The  later  observations  of  subsequent  years  added  much  to  my 
evidences  of  the  existence  of  acid  in  soils ;  and  still  later  and  scientific  in- 
vestigations of  chemists  have  served  to  establish  that  there  is  an  acid 
principle  in  most  soils,  in  the  fiumic  or  geie  acid.  But  these  discoveries  of 
chemists  had  not  been  published  in  1817,  (if  indeed  known  to  any)  nor  iiad 
my  own  ohservations  reached  to  all  the  proofs  which  1  afterwards  (in  1832) 
published  in  the  first  edition  (in  book  form)  of  the 'Essay  on  Calcareous 
Manures,'  and  which  were  still  in  advance  of  the  publication  of  the  now 
generally  received  opinions  of  the  geic  or  humic  acid.  It  must  therefore, 
be  confessed,  that  if  I  reached  a  correct  conclusion,  it  was  not  on  sufficiently 
established  premises,  and  known  chemical  facts.  However,  reached  it  was, 
whether  by  right  or  by  wrong  reasoning;  and  however  little  supported  by 
direct  proof  or  authority,  I  was  almost  sure,  in  advance  of  any  known 
experiment,  first,  that  the  cause  of  the  unproductiveness  and  unfitness  for 
being  enriched  of  most  of  our  lands,  was  the  presence  of  acid — and  secondly, 
and  consequently,  that  the  application  of  lime,  or  calcareous  earth,  would, 
by  taking  up  and  destroying  the  poisonous  principle,  leave  the  soil  free  to 
receive  and  to  profit  by  enriching  manures. 

But  even  if  this  theoretical  position  had  been  demonstrated,  still  it  might 
furnish  no  ■profitable  practical  remedy.     For  admitting  that  the  application 


I'M.'  I  INI  RK8  245 

Icareoua  matters  would  n  !  evil,  and«aake  it 

ble  of  receiving  subsequent  improvement,  >■■  I 
the  land,  I  supposed,  would  be  still  b  would  requi 

the  manure,  labor  and  time  necessary  to  enrich  any  very  poor  soil;  and 
these  might  be  so  expensive,  that  the  improvement  of  the  land  would  Boat 
more  than  it  would  afterwards  he  worth..  These  considerations  served 
to  lessen  my  estimation  of  the  practical  utility  of  the  theoretical  truth,  ami 
to  make  my  earliest  applications  of  the  theory  tn  practice  hesitating,  ami 
very  limited  in  extent. 

[hiving  settled  that  calcareous  matter   v, .  icine  to  he  applied 

to  the  diseased  or  illy  constituted  soil,  I  was  luckily  at  no  loss  to  find 
materials.  In  some  of  the  many  ravines  which  passed  through  my  land, 
and  on  sundry  parts  of  the  river  hank,  were  exposed  some  portions  of  the 
beds  of  fossil  shells  which  underlie  nearly  all  the  eastern  parts  of  Virginia  ami 
several  other  southern  states;  the  deposite  which  then  had  obtained  in  this 
region,  though  improperly,  and  still  retains  the  name  of  marl.  I  began 
operations  in  February  l-l  I,  at  one  of  the  spots  most  accessible  to  a  cart. 
The  overlying  earth  was  .  and  a   few  feet  in   width  of  the  marl 

exposed,  in  which  a  pit  was  sunk  to  the  depth  of  but  three  or  four  feet. 
When  night  stopped  the  digging  and  throwing  out  of  the  marl,  the  slowly 
oozing  water  filled  the  pit;  and  as  no  proper  pi  in  of  draining  had  been 
adopted,  the  fust  shallow  pit  was  abandoned,  and  another  opened.  In  this 
laborious  and  wasteful  manner  there  was  as  much  marl  obtained  as  1  was 
then  willing  to  apply.  It  served  to  give  a  covering  i  f  1  25  t"  200  husheJs 
per  acre,  to  2i  acres  of  new-ground.  The  wood  on  the  land  had  been  cut 
down  three  years  before,  and  suffered  to  lie  and  rot  until  cleared  up  for 
ition  in  1818.  Though  poor  ridge  laud,  and  of  what  I  deemed  of 
the  most  acid  class  of  soils,  still  the  previous  treatment  had  given  to  it  so 
much  decomposed  vegetable  matter,  that  its  product  would  necessarily  be 
made  the  best  which  such  a  soil  was  capable  of  bringing.  And  because 
of  the  superabundance  of  food  fir  plants  then  ready  to  act,  this  was  not  a 
good  subject  to  show  the  earliest  and  greatest  benefit  of  neutralizing  the 
acid.  However — notwithstanding  this  circumstance,  and  the  small  amount 
and  poverty  of  the  marl,  (which  contained  but  one-third  of  calcareous 
matter,)  the  improvement  produced  was  greater  and  more  speedy  in  show- 
ing than  I  had  dared  to  hope  for.  When  the  plants  were  but  a  few  inches 
hfgh,  and  before  I  had  expected  to  see  the  slightest  improvement,  (indeed 
had  hern  expected  to  show  in  the  first  year,)  the  superiority  of  the  marled 
corn  was  manifest,  and  which  continued  to  increase  as  the  growth  ad- 
vanced. My  hicrh  gratification  can  only  be  appreciated  by  a  schemer 
and  projector ;  but  such  a  one  can  well  imagine  my  feelings  and  sympa- 
thize in  my  triumph.  The  increase  of  the  first  crop,  corn,  I  stai< 
in  reporting  the  experiment,  to  he  fully  10  per  cent.,  and  that  of  the  wheat 
which  succeeded  was  much  greater.  Subsequent  measurements  of  other 
products  of  experiments  induced  me  to  believe  that  I  had  under-rated  the 
amount  of  increase  in  this  first  application.  (This  experiment  is  the  first 
stated,  and  at  length,  at  page  72  of  '  Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures,'  3d 
edition.  Throughout  this  republished  article,  the  references  to  the 
of  the  ■  .us  Manures,  will  be  phanged  from  the  previous  to 

the  present  edition] 

it  as  had  been  the  labor  ol  this  applii  ation,  and  sm 
product,  (comparing  both  with  later  operations,)  the  result  -;>!ete- 

ly  to  sustain  my  theoretical   vii  o  showed  the  remi 

general  evil  to  he  far  more  quick,  and  more  profitable,  than  I  had 
counted   on.     Another   person    would  probably   have  despised  this  small 

31 


246  I  ALCAEEOUS   MANUEES— APPEWMX. 

increase  to  the  acre,  if  supposing  the  effect  to  be  but  temporary :  and  this 
all  would  have  inferred,  whether  judging  by  comparison  with  all  other 
manures  known  in  practice,  or  even  if  by  the  authority  of  books.  For  the 
best  informed  of  the  old  writers,  (even  Lord  Kanies,  for  example,)  while 
claiming  for  the  effects  of  marl  great  durability,  still  consider  that  at  some 
period,  say  20  or  100  years,  the  effects  are  to  cease.  L'ut  my  views  were 
not  limited  within  any  practical  experience,  or  authority,  but  by  my  own 
theory  of  the  action ;  and  that  theory  taught  me  to  infer  that  the  ! 
gained  would  never  be  lost,  and  that  under  proper  cultivation,  the  increase 
of  product  would  still  more  increase,  instead  of  being  lessened  in  the  course 
of  time.  In  thus  fully  confiding  in  the  permanency  of  the  improvement, 
I  was  at  once  convinced  of  the  operation  being  both  cheap  and  profitable. 
All  doubt  and  hesitation  were  thrown  asiae,  and  I  determined  to  increase 
my  labors  in  marling  to  the  utmost  extent  of  my  views.  Still  the  want 
of  spare  labor,  and  the  established  routine  of  farm  operations  which 
occupied  all  the  force,  retarded  my  operations  so  much,  that  no  more  than 
12  more  acres  (for  the  next  year's  crop)  were  marled  in  that  year. 

It  forms  an  essential  part  of  the  character  of  an  enthusiastic  and  suc- 
cessful projector,  and  especially  an  agricultural  projector,  to  be  as  anxious 
to  inform  others  as  to  profit  himself.  Of  course  I  tried  to  bestow  upon  and 
share  my  lights  with  all  my  neighbors  and  other  farmers  whom  my  then 
secluded  life  permitted  me  to  meet.  This  disposition  also  caused  my  earliest 
attempt  at  writing  for  even  so  small  a  portion  of  the  public  as  constituted 
a  little  agricultural  society  of  which  I  had  induced  the  establishment  in  my 
neighborhood.  To  show  my  earliest  opinions  and  statements  on  this  sub- 
ject, I  will  here  quote  the  material  part  of  a  communication  made  to  that 
society,  and  which  was  written  in  October  of  the  year  of  my  first  experi- 
ment in  IS  18.  I  copy  the  extract  just  as  it  then  stood,  and  with  ail  its 
defects  of  form  and  of  substance.  I  then  shrunk  in  fear  from  the  greater 
publicity  which  the  press  would  have  afforded,  and  had  not  the  remotest 
anticipation  that  my  first  effort,  then  made,  would  lead  me  to  the  extent  of 
intercourse  since  established  and  maintained  with  the  public,  both  by  writ- 
ing and  printing. 

■•  We  should  be  induced  to  infer  from  the  remarks  of  those  writers  who 
have  treated  on  the  improvement  of  land,  that  a  soil  artificially  enriched  is 
equally  valuable  with  one  which  would  produce  the  same  amount  of  crop 
from  its  natural  fertility;  and  that  a  soil  originally  good,  but  impoverished 
by  injudicious  cultivation,  is  no  better  than  if  it  never  had  been  rich.  If 
this  conclusion  be  just  (and  the  contrary  has  not  been  even  hinted  by  them) 
it  is  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  opinion  of  man}-  intelligent  practical  farm- 
ers, with  whom  my  own  observations  concur,  in  pronouncing  that  soils  na- 
turally rich,  (although  completely  worn  out.)  will  sooner  recover  by  rest — 
can  be  enriched  with  less  manure— and  will  longer  resist  the  effects  of  the 
severest  course  of  cropping,  than  soils  of  as  good  apparent  texture  and 
constitution,  and  in  similar  situations,  but  poor  before  they  were  brought 
into  cultivation.  Should  the  latter  opinion  be  correct,  it  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  that  the  subject  should  be  investigated  :  as  the  only  conclusion 
that  can  be  drawn  from  it  is,  that  such  land  must  have  some  secret  defect 
in  its  constitution,  some  principle  adverse  to  improvement :  and  until  this  is 
discovered  and  corrected,  it  is  an  almost  hopeless  undertaking  to  make  a 
barren  country  permanently  fertile,  by  means  of  animal  and  vegetable 
manure. 

"That  inclosing*  has  but  little  effect  in  improving  land  naturally  barren, 

"  The  non-frazing  system  of  Taylor. 


CAECAREOl  a  MAM  RES     APPENDIX.  0-17 

is  sufficiently  proved  by  poor  wood-land.  This  has  had  the  benefit  of  inclos- 
ing foi  perhaps  thousands  of  yeurs,  and  is  yel  miserably  poor.  It  may 
be  said  that  leaves  are  not  to  be  compared  In  valu  ■  woods;  but 

surely  leaves  ought  to  improve  as  much  in  a  thousand  years, 
weeds  in  twenty.     Besides,  it  is  well  known,  that  leaves  taken  from  this 
very  land,  and  applied  elsewhere,  have  produced  nrdeh  benefit;  and  the 
advocates  of  inclosing  must  agree  with  me  in  ascribin  use  the 

natural  fertility  of  the  most  valuable  land. 

•■  \-  i"  manuring,  there  are  but  few  farmers  who  have  not,  like  mo,  expe- 
rienced  complete  disappointment  in  endeavoring  to  improve  land  so  little 
favored  by  nature,  in  the  usual  method  of  summer  manuring,  by  movable 
cow-pens,  the  must  negligent  farmers  give  tl  g,  by  suffer- 

ing their  pens  to  remain  stationary  sometimes  six  or  eight  weeks,     I  have 
known  tho  surface  in  this  manner  to  be  covered  an  inch  thick  with  tho 
i  of  manures,  and  yet,  after  going  through  I  urse  of  crops 

and  grazing  with  the  adjoining  unmanured  land  for  six  years,  it  could  not  be 
distinguished."  ********** 

••II  any  one  principle  should  be  always  found  in  one  kind  of  soil,  and  as 
invariably  absent  in  the  other,  we  might  reasonably  infer  that  thai  was  tho 
cause  of  fertility  or  barrenness.  Judging  from  my  very  limited  observa- 
tions, it  appeals  evident  that  calcare 

soil  rieh  in  its  natural  state,  and  thai  whenever  a  soil  is  entirely  or  nearly 
deficient,  it  never  can  become  rieh  of  itself,  ami  if  made  so  by  heavy  doses 
of  doflg,  will  soon  relapse  into  il  i'ity. 

"  Let  us  observe  h.ow  facts  coincide  with  this  opinion.  The  lower  part 
of  Virginia  la  generally  poor ;  narrow  rivers  and  smaller 

water  i  nearly  all  the  high  lands  that  are  valuable,  and  in  this 

class,  exclusively,  shells  are  seen  so  frequently,  and  in  such  abundance,  that 
thai  they  are  universally  present,  but  so  finely 
divided  as  not  to  he  visible.     'U  hen  we  kno  luced  by  cal- 

careous  earth  in  the  color  and  texture  of  soil,  and  in  a  field  of  an  hundred 
.  all  of  the  same  dark-colored  mellow  soil,  shells  may  be  seen  in  only 
a  lew  detached   spots,  yet  we  cannot   but  attribute  the  same  effects  to  the 
same  cause,  and  allow  calcareous  malt. a'  to  he  present  in  every  part. 

"The  durable  fertility  of  land  which  contains  .shells  in  abundance  is  so 
wonderful,  that  1  should  not  dare  to  describe  it,  were  not  the  facts  supported 
by  the  best  authority.  The  calcareous  matter  for  ages  has  beerrcollecting 
and  fixing  in  the  soil  such  an  immense  supply  of  ve  tter,  thai  near 

two  centuries  of  almost  continual  exhaustion  have  not  materially  injured 
its  value.  I  have  seen -fields  on  Vork,  James,"  ai  I  fansemond  rivers,  now 
extremely  productive,  which  are  said  to  have  been  under  cultivation  for 
thirty  and  forty  years,  without  any  aid  worthy  mentioning,  from  rest  or 
manure. 

"  The  same  cause  operates  on  low  lands,  formed  by  alluvion,  and  situated 
on  streams  accustomed  to  overflow.  Such  land  is,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
of  the  first  quality;  audit  is  made  so  by  tho  calcareous  matter  which  the 
currents  must  necessarily  convey  from  the  strata  of  marl  through  which 
they  pass  ;  and  which  being  Intimately  mixed  with  sand,  clay,  and  vegeta- 
ble matter,  is  sufficient  to  form  the  finest  and  deepest  soil.  All  the  rich  low 
grounds  which  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  observing,  have  marl  on  some 
of  the  streams  which  fail  into  them,  and  1  have  not  heard  of  any  on  those 
few  which  are  poor,     v  i    i  solitary  instanci  eing  found  in  poor 

land  of  any  description  has  come  to  my  know: 

» If  these  premises  are  correct,  no  other  conclusion  can  bo  drawn  from 
them  but  that  a  proportion  of  i  toil  a  capacity  for 


248  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 

improvement  which  it  has  not  without ;  and  it  also  follows,  that  by  an  ap- 
plication of  shell-marl,  the  worst  land  would  be  enabled  to  digest  and  retain 
that  food,  which  has  hitherto  been  of  little  or  no  advantage."     *        * 

"  The  property  of  fixing  manures  is  not  more  important  in  marl,  than 
that  of  destroying  acids.  The  unproductiveness  of  our  lands  arises  not  so 
much  from  the  absence  of  food  as  the  presence  of  poison.  We  are  so  much 
accustomed  to  see  a  luxuriant  and  rapid  growth  of  pines  cover  land  on 
which  no  crop  can  thrive,  that  we  cannot  readily  see  the  impropriety  of 
calling  such  a  soil  absolutely  barren. 

"  From  the  circumstance  of  this  soil  being  so  congenial  to  the  growth  of 
pine  and  sorrel,  (both  of  which  are  acid  plants,)  it  seems  probable  that  it 
abounds  in  acidity,  or  acid  combinations,  which,  (although  destructive  to 
all  valuable  crops,)  are  their  food  while  living,  and  product  when  dead. 
The  most  common  forest  trees  are  furnishing  the  earth  with  poison  as  libe- 
rally as  food,  while  it  depends  entirely  on  the  presence  of  the  antidote,  whe- 
ther one  or  the  other  takes  effect.  I  have  observed  a  very  luxuriant  growth 
of  sorrel  on  land  too  poor  to  support  vegetables  of  any  kind,  from  green 
pine  brush  having  been  buried  to  stop  gullies;  and  it  is  well  known  how 
much  land  on  which  pines  have  rotted  is  infested  with  this  pernicious  plant. 
Marl  will  immediately  neutralize  the  acid,  and  this  noxious  principle  being 
removed,  the  land  will  then  for  the  first  time  yield  according  to  its  actual 
capacity.  Sorrel  will  no  longer  be  troublesome;  and,  by  a  very  heavy  co- 
vering, I  have  known  a  spot  rendered  incapable  of  producing  it,  although 
the  adjoining  land  was  thickly  set  to  the  edge.  Pines  do  not  thrive  on  shelly 
land,  whether  fertile  or  exhausted.  To  this  cause  I  attribute  the  great  and 
immediate  benefit  I  derived  from  marl  on  new-ground.  The  acid  produced 
by  the  pine  leaves  is  destroyed,  and  the  soil  is  capable  of  supporting  much 
heavier  crops,  without  being  (as  yet)  at  all  richer  than  it  was." — Communi- 
cation lo  Prince  George  Agricultural  Society. 

Before  proceeding  to  state  later  experiments,  and  general  practice  and 
results,  it  will  be  necessary  to  recur  to  some  other  connected  branches  of 
the  subject.     The  reader  will  pardon  the  apparent  digression. 

So  well  established  and  general  has  the  opinion  now  become  that  this 
marl  is  a  manure,  and  a  most  valuable  one,  that  it  may  seem  strange  that 
I  should  have  only  arrived  at  such  an  opinion  indirectly,  by  the  train  of 
reasoning  indicated  above.  There  were  hundreds  of  persons  who  after- 
wards said,  "Oh!  /  never  doubted  that  marl  was  a  good  manure;"  but 
not  one  of  whom  had  been  induced  to  try  its  operation.  But  passing  by 
these  postpo7iing  believers,  and  all  others  who  confessedly  never  attached 
any  value  to  this  great  deposite,  it  may  require  explanation  why  I  had  not 
learned  its  value  from  English  works  which  treat  so  extensively  on  marl, 
even  though  I  had  then  had  access  to  but  few  of  them.  It  was  precisely 
because  I  had  read  attentively  some  of  the  English  accounts  of  marl  that  I 
was  deterred  from  using  our  mart,  which  agreed  with  it  (apparently)  in 
nothing  but  name.  Struck  with  the  importance  attached  to  marl  in 
England,  I  had  earnestly  desired  to  find  it,  and  had  searched  for  it  in  vain, 
years  before  the  early  beginning  of  my  farming.  The  name  induced  a 
close  examination  of  what  was  called  marl  here ;  but  the  "  soapy  feel," 
the  absence  of  grit,  the  crumbling  and  melting  of  lumps  in  water,  &c, 
which,  were  the  most  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  marl  of  the 
English  writers,  were  in  vain  looked  for  in  our  shell  beds — of  which  the  earth 
was  generally  sandy,  never  "  soapy,"  and  of  which  the  lumps  were  often 
of  almost  stony  hardness,  and  if  not,  at  least  showed  nothing  of  the 
melting  disposition  of  the  English  marls.  I  had  before  this  found,  however, 
in  the  American  edition  of  the  '  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia,'  more  modern 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX  £49 

and  correct  views  of  marl)  and  had  thereby  learned  to  prize  cakm 
matter  in  general  as  an  ingredient  of  soil,  whether  natural  or  artificial. 
But  still,  even  admitting  that  the  shelly  portion  ol  our  marl  would  slowly 
decompose,  and  gradually  furnls  inure  to  the  soH,  still  it  seemed 

that  there  was  little  prospect  of  its  operating  as  the  English  marl,  of  such 
very  different  texture  and.  qualities,  1  then  sopposed  that  the  shells  which 
had  resisted  decomposition,  even  where  exposed  on  the  surface  of  the  beds, 
for  centuries,  would  be  as  slow  to  dissolve,  and  loan  as  manure  if  laid 
upon  the  fields.  Still,  notwithstanding  these  grounds  of  objection,  the 
ral  idea  of  the  value  of  calcareous  manures  would  have  induced 

hells,  but  for  being  deti  rred  therefrom  by  the  only  actual 
facts  then  known  of  the  use.  When  speaking  of  my  thought  of  trying 
marl  to  my  friend  Mr.  1  tocke,  he  told  me  that  it  was  not  worth  the  trouble; 
that  he  (attracted  merely  by  the  name,)  had  made  several  small  applications, 
in  1803,  on  soils  of  different  kinds,  and  that  he  had  found  almost  no  visible 
benefit;  and  he  had  attached  so  little  importance  to  the  trial,  that  he  had 
never  thought  to  mention  it,  until  induced  by  my  remark.  This  com- 
munication wa<  enough  to  check  my  then  slight  disposition  to  try  marl. 
The  old  experiments  of  Mr.  Cocke,  as  well  as  some  much  older,  and,  like 
his,  considered  worthless  by  tiie  makers  and  almost  forgotten,  are  stated 
at  page  To  ,,i  this  edition  of  •  Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures.' 

As  soon  as  1  was  satisfied  that  1  had  found  in  marl  a  remedy  for  the 
general  and  fixed  disease  of  our  poor  lands,  it  became  very  desirable  to 
know  the  strength  of  different  beds,  and  of  the  different  parts  of  the  same 
bed.  The  rules  ol  Davy  for  determining  the  proportion  of  carbonate  of  lime 
were  easy  to  apply;  and  having  provided  myself  with  the  necessary  tests 
and  other  means.  1  was  BOOh  enabled  to  analyze  the  specimens  with  ease 
and  accuracy.  This  was  a  delightful  and  profitable  direction  of  my  very 
small  amount  of  chemical  acquirements,  and  served  to  stimulate  to  further 
study.     The  amount  ef  knowledge  was  indeed  very  small— and  is  still  so 

with  all  later  ai  quire ats  added.     But  little  as  1  had  been  enabled  to  learn 

of  chemistry,  the  possession  led  me  to  adopt  my  views  of  the  constitution 
of  soils,  and  enabled  me  to  double  the  product,  and  to  much  more  than 
double  the  clear  profit  and  pecuniary  value  of  my  land,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  years  thereafter. 

Though  my  own  doubts  as  to  the  propriety  and  profit  of  marling  had 
been  removed  by  my  first  experiments,  it  was  not  so  with  my  neighbors. 
Small  applications  were  indeed  made  by  two  of  them  only,  in  the  next 
year  after  my  first  trial.  But  either  because  the  land  had  been  kept  too 
much  exhausted  of  its  vegetable  matter  by  grazing  as  well  as  by  cropping, 
or  because  the  experimei  1  not  think  of  the  operation  of  the  ma- 

nure as  different  from  thai  of  dung,  or  for  both  these  reasons,  it  is  certain 
that  they  were  not  encouraged  by  the  results  to  persevere.  They 
stopped  marling  with  their  first  trial,  until  several  years  alter,  when 
both  recommenced,  then  fully  convinced  of  the  benefit,  and  wen-  af- 
terwards among  the  I  most  successful  marlers.  One  of 
these  persons  was  the  late  Edward  Marks,  of  old  Town,  and  the  other 
my  old  friend  Thomas  Cocke— who,  though  he  had  led  aero  find  the  dis- 
ease, could  not  be  speedily  convinced  >>i'  its  true  nature,  or  of  the  value  of 
the  remedy.  As  late  indeed  as  1822,  when  he  walked  with  me  to  an 
enormous  excavation  which  1  was  then  soaking  in  carrying  out  marl,  he 
said  to  me,  "In  future  time,  if  marling  shall  then  have  been  abandoned 
as  unprofitable,  this  place  will  probably  be  known  by  the  name  of  '  Kufftn'n 
Folly.'  "  For  some  years,  my  marling  was  a  subject  lor  ridicule  with  some 
of  my  neighbors;   and  this  was  renewed,  when   in  after-time  the  great 


250  CALCAREOUS   MANURES— APPlSnoiX. 

damage  caused  by  improper  applications  began  to  be  seen,  and  which  will 
be  described  in  due  order. 

Having  bad  in  view  from  the  beginning  the  true  action  of  marl,  and  fully 
believing  that  its  good  effects  would  be  permanent,  and  even  increasing 
with  time,  under  a  proper  system  of  tillage,  I  was  no  more  discouraged  by 
what  some  deemed  small  profits,  than  I  was  annoyed  by  the  incredulity  and 
ridicule  of  other  persons.  Almost  all  the  farms  in  the  neighborhood,  except 
mine,  were  regularly  and  closely  grazed  when  not  under  a  crop,  and  of 
course  they  had  not  stored  up  in  the  soil  much  either  of  inert  vegetable 
matter,  or  its  acid  product.  Mine  had  not  been  grazed  since  1814,  and 
had  been  rested  two  years  in  every  four;  and  the  poorest  land  three 
years  in  four.  And  though,  in  truth,  no  increased  production  had  been 
obtained  by  this  lenient  treatment,  inasmuch  as  the  increase  of  acid  coun- 
terbalanced the  increase  of  vegetable  food,  still,  when  marl  was  applied,  the 
acid  was  immediately  destroyed,  and  the  food  left  free  to  act.  The  effect 
of  marling  was  generally  shown  most  plainly  on  the  first  crop  of  corn,  and 
the  limits  could  be  easily  traced  by  the  deep  green  color  of  the  plants 
before  they  were  five  inches  high ;  and  the  increased  product  of  the  first 
crop  on  acid  soils  rarely  fell  under  50  per  cent.,  was  most  generally  100, 
and  has  been  known  to  be  200  per  cent.  But  even  such  increase  was  not 
satisfactory  to  many  persons,  until  the  action  of  marl  came  to  be  better 
understood,  and  the  permanency  of  the  effects  were  credited.  In  five  or 
six  years  after  my  commencement,  there  were  few  if  any  of  those  of  my 
neighbors,  who  had  marl  visible  on  their  lands,  who  had  not  begun  to  apply 
it.  And  though  it  has  been  injudiciously  as  well  as  insufficiently  applied 
since,  and  not  one-fourth  of  the  full  benefit  obtained,  still  the  general 
improvement  and  increased  products  of  the  marl  farms  of  Prince  George 
have  been  very  great.  The  existence  of  marl  too,  which  was  known  at  first 
but  on  a  few  farms  in  my  own  neighborhood,  has  been  since  discovered  in 
many  and  remote  parts  of  the  county;  and  wherever  accessible  it  is  valued 
and  used.  The  like  observations  will  now  apply  to  most  of  the  other 
counties  of  lower  Virginia.  Wherever  the  effects  of  marling  could  be 
seen  for  a  few  years,  the  early  incredulity  not  only  disappeared,  but  most 
persons  were  even  too  ready  to  believe  in  marl  possessing  virtues  to  which 
it  has  no  claim.  Thus,  ignorant  or  careless  of  its  true  mode  of  operation, 
they  crop  the  marled  lands  more  severely  than  before  ;  and  if  they  are  not 
thereby  soon  reduced  as  low  as.  their  former  state  of  sterility,  they  are 
made  to  approach  it  as  nearly  as  possible,  and  at  a  sacrifice  of  nine-tenths 
of  the  profit  from  marling  which  a  more  lenient  and  judicious  system  of 
cultivation  wTould  have  insured. 

In  1819,  the  second  year  of  my  operations,  my  marling  was  increased  to 
62  acres,  but  most  of  it  at  too  thin  a  rate.  In  1S20,  only  25  acres,  though 
at  600  heaped  bushels  or  even  more  to  the  acre.  Up  to  this  time  I  had 
done  as  most  other  persons  have,  that  is,  attempted  to  marl  "  at  leisure 
times,"  and  without  making  it  a  regular  employment  for  a  certain  additional 
force,  or  reducing  the  amount  of  cultivation,  or  of  other  operations  on  the 
farm.  No  person  will  ever  marl  to  much  advantage  who  does  not  avoid 
this  error;  and  this  year's  labors  showed  the  necessity  of  an  alteration.  The 
next  year,  two  horses  and  carts,  with  the  necessary  drivers  and  pit-men, 
were  appropriated  to  marling  at  all  times  when  weather  permitted,  except 
during  harvest,  thrashing,  and  wheat-sowing  times.  Viewing  marling  too 
as  the  most  profitable  operation,  except  the  saving  of  a  crop  already  made, 
it  was  made  a  fixed,rule  of  the  farm  that  marling  was  to  be  interrupted  for 
nothing  else.  My  corn  shift  for  that  year  was  reduced  in  size  one  half— so 
that  one  half  could   be  marled  while  the  other  was  under  cultivation.     By 


(   U/CARE01  S   MAM  KKS-AITKNDI.V  ->5  | 

these  means,  1  marled  80  acres  this  year,  1821,  (and  that  much  t 
and  had  all  the  lessened  corn-field  on  marled  land.    The  product  of  the  hall 
was  equal  to  what  the  whole  had  brought  before,  and  I  was  enabled  i 
after  to  have  every  field  marled  over  In  advance  of  its  next  cultivation,     in 
1822,  the  land  marled  was  93  acres,  phi  in  1823,  and  80  In  1824,  which 
served  to  cover  nearly  all  ol  the  then  cleared  land  i  .u-iing.     The 

next  three  years'  marling  amounted  respectively  to  50  acres,  24  acres,  and 
a,  being  principally  upon  land  su  !  and  brought  itito 

cultivation,    since  then,  there  has  been  nom  ,  excepl  on 

wood-land,  not  yet  cleared,  and  on  small  spots  formerly  omitted,  and  of 
which  mi  account  was  taken.  With  the  exception  of  such  spots,  (and  some 
such  still  remain,  because  of  their  inconvenien  all  the  land  which 

was  nut  naturally  calearei his,  ur  tin.)  wet  01  too  Steep  for" carting  mi,  had 
been  marled  by  1827;  and  none  has  required  any  additional  dose,  though 
some  of  the  thinnest  covered  places  had  been  re-marled  long  before  thai 
time,  so  as  to  bring  them  to  a  proper  constitution. 

In  1824, 1  first  observed,  (and  had  never  cted  such  effect,) 

tin-  injury  caused  by  having  marled  acid  soil  too  heavily.  To  show  my  first 
impressions,  I  will  copy  the  words  ol  my  farm  journal,  written  on  the  very 
day  on  which  the  discovery  was  fully  made. 

-June  13th,  1S-.M.  Observed  a  new  and  alarming  disease  in  a  large  pro- 
portion of  my  corn ;  and,  what  makes  the  matter  much  worse,  the  evil  is 
certainly  caused  by  marling.  The  disease  seems  to  have  commenced  when 
the  corn  was  from  0  to  10  inches  high,  and  to  have  stopped  its  growth.  Its 
general  color  is  a  pale  sickly  green,  and  tl»  «ar  so  thin  as  to  be 

almost  transparent:  next  they  become  Streaked  with  rusty  red.  and  then 
begin  to  die  at  the  upper  ends.     Several   pu  iwed  no  defect,  or 

injury  from  insects,  among  the  roots.  All  the  land  marled  from  pits  A'os.  7 
and  9  (both  yellow)  from  I820'to  Is;-,',  is  so  much  diseased  as  to  promise 
not  more  than  halt  a  crop.  The  corn  is  twice  as  large  as  on  the  spaces  left 
for  experiment  without  marl,  yet  looks  much  worse;  though  three  weeks 
ago  its  superiority  in  color  and  even  more  than  in  size.     AVith 

but  few  exceptions,  the  land  newly  marled  from  the  same  pits,  and  the  old 
marling  from  Nos,  I  and  8,  (both  bine,)  as  well  as  that  not  marled,  are  free 
from  this  disease.  The  parts  most  affected  are  those  which  were  driest  and 
poorest,  and  of  course  were  least  covered  with  vegetable  matter.  Yet 
though  the  corn  on  this  old  marling  is  generally  so  bad,  it  is  yet  evident  that 
the  land  is  more  benefited  by  the  manure  than  at  first:  flourishing  stalks  of 
corn,  18  to  24  inches  high,  are  seen  frequently  within  a  few  feet  of  those 
most  hurt  by  this  disease." 

Subsequently,  when  the  whole  extent  of  injury  could  be  seen,  the  follow- 
ing remarks  were  written  in  the  journal,  at  the  date  helow. 

"October  15th.  The  damage  caused  by  marl  to  this  crop  I  suppose  to  be 
about  one  third  of  what  the  land  would  otherwise  i  from 

the  present  and  former  measurements  of  the  same  land,  where  experiments 
were  made. 

"Nearly  all  the  heavy  marling  in  Finnies,  (at  800  bushels,)  about  20 
acres,*  suffered  by  it ;  the  poorest  and  lightest  most  injured,  here  and  in 
Court-House  field.  The  few  rich  spots  escaped;  as  did  most  of  the 
plastered  (on  the  heavy  marling)  in  1820.  The  marks  of  this  experiment 
were  destroyed,  and  the  superiority  was  not  so  regular  a 
trace  the  outlines  of  the  gypseous  earth  — hut  an  acre  of  corn  might  be 
taken  which  certainly  was    |  better  than  any  other  acre  in  t! 

•  See  F.xp   1U.  p   sj,  Essay  on  Cat.  Man 


252  '  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

land.  This  at  least  proves  that  gypsum  contained  [if  any]  in  the  marl  has 
not  caused  the  disease.  The  poor  land,  lightly  marled  in  1819,  showed  but 
little  of  the  disease,  and  none  was  found  in  the  piece  not  marled,  nor  in  any 
marled  since  the  last  crop  [or  now  first  cultivated  since  being  marled.] 

"  In  Court-House  field  the  injury  was  confined  to  19  acres,  the  poorest 
part  of  the  field,  which  was  in  corn  in  1821, :  marled  and  fallowed,  1822, 
and  in  wheat  1823,  corn  1524.  The  remainder  of  the  old  land,  which  had 
not  been  cropped  so  severely,  and  was  covered  as  heavy  with  blue  marl, 
brought  a  fine  crop,  quite  free  from  the  disease.  The  new  ground  was 
mostly  marled  very  heavy  (800  bushels  of  45  per  cent.)t  and  this  and  all  my 
former  clearings,  (some  marled  equally  heavy,)  were  also  quite  free.  These 
facts  satisfy  me  that  it  was  not  the  quality,  but  the  over  quantity  of  marl 
which  has  caused  the  evil ;  and  that  the  land  which  has  escaped,  owes  its 
safety  to  its  containing  more  vegetable  matter.  I  forgot  to  state  that  on 
some  of  the  lightest  spots  of  South  Field  the  wheat  was  much  injured, 
though  blue  marl  was  used  there. 

"  If  I  had  followed  my  own  advice  to  others,  "  to  put  no  more  marl  at 
first  than  would  but  little  more  than  neutralize  the  soil,  and  repeat  the  dress- 
ing afterwards,"  this  evil  would,  not  have  fallen  on  me.  The  present  loss  is 
not  much ;  but  it  makes  me  expect  the  same  on  all  similar  land,  marled  as 
heavily.  I  shall  endeavor  to  avoid  it,  by  giving  vegetable  matter  to  the  soil; 
either  by  manuring,  or  by  allowing  one  or  two  more  years  of  grass  in  the 
first  term  of  the  rotation.  Why  the  quantity  of  marl  applied  should  do  harm 
in  any  case,  is  more  than  I  can  tell ;  but  I  draw  this  consolation  from  the  dis- 
covery—if a  certain  quantity,  (say  500  bushels  per  acre,)  is  too  much  for 
present  use  of  the  soil,  it  proves  that  it  will  combine  with  more  vegetable 
matter,  and  fix  more  fertility  in  the  soil,  than  I  had  supposed.  That  the 
second  crop  should  be  injured,  and  not  the  first,  is  owing  to  the  unbroken 
state  of  the  shells  at  first,  and,  by  their  being  reduced,  twice  as  much  calca- 
reous matter  is  in  action  after  a  few  years." 

Thus  it  will  be  seen,  from  these  entries  made  at  the  time,  that  I  took  a 
correct  view  of  this  great  and  unlooked-for  evil,  and  was  by  no  means  dis- 
couraged, or  induced  to  lessen  my  efforts  in  marling.  But  in  all  after 
operations  on  poor  land,  the  quantity  was  lessened  from  500  and  600 
bushels,  (and  even  more  of  the  poorest  marl,)  to  about  300  bushels.  With 
this  alteration,  the  operation  was  continued  with  as  much  zeal  as  before; 
and  also  at  a  later  time  on  another  farm  (Shellbanks)  purchased  afterwards, 
and  where  I  marled  upwards  of  400  acres. 

"When  this  injury  was  first  discovered,  about  250  acres  of  very  similar 
land  had  been  marled  so  heavily  that  the  like  mischief  was  to  be  looked  for 
in  the  next  crop,  and  thenceforward,  if  not  guarded  against.  For  a  more 
full  account  of  this  disease,  and  my  opinions  thereon,  I  must  refer  to  what 
has  been  before  published. {  It  is  sufficient  here  to  say  that  by  pursuing  the 
means  there  advised— in  allowing  more  rest  from  grain  crops,  furnishing 
vegetable  matter  to  the  land,  in  its  natural  cover  of  weeds,  in  clover  and 
farm-yard  manure  so  far  as  the  limited  supply  sufficed — that  no  very  great 
loss  was  subsequently  suffered,  except  in  the  field  where  the  disease  was 
first  discovered,  and  which  was  marled  in  1819.  This  field  was  too  remote 
and  inconveniently  situated,  to  be  manured  from  the  barn-yard ;  and  from 
that  and  other  causes,  (including  the  failure  of  the  first  seeding  of  clover,) 
that  field  only  still  shows  injury  from  marling  in  the  present  crop  (1839;) 

*  Exp.  n,  p.  S6 

t  Exp.  1  to  4,  pp.  72  to  77. 

}  Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures  ante. 


I    U.CAREOUS  MAM  UK-     Al'I'KMUX  253 

so  much  diminished  however,  that  its  general  average  product  this  year 
is  fully  twice  as  much  as  the  land  could   have  brought  before  being  marled. 

The  results  of  many  particular  experiments  made  during  the  progress  of 
marling  this  farm  were  stale. 1  in  the  ' Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures,' and 
the  general   benefits  and   improved   products  wi  I  in  a  later 

publication.*  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  repeat  these  statements.  But  as 
this  article  may  come  under  the  notice  of  some  nailers  who  have  not 
a  to  the  others,  the  general  results,  as  produced  in  the  whole  period 
of  twenty-two  years,  from  the  earliest  experiment  to  the  last  product,  will 
•  very  concisely  and  generally  stated. 

The  many  and  extensive  old  galled  parts  of  sloping  land,  wherever 
dressed  with  marl,  and  even  without  the  further  help  of  barn-yard  manure, 
are  now  nearly  all  skinned  over  by  a  newly  formed  soil ;  and  though  such 
soil  is  still  both  poor  and  thin,  and  may  yet  long  remain  so,  the  whole  of  its 
present  productive  power  is  due  to  marling;  as  such  galled  land  was  before 
naked,  entirely  barren,  and  irreclaimable  by  other  manures.  Where  much 
or  rich  putrescent  matter  has  been  also  applied  to  galls,  with  or  after  marl, 
both  rich  and  durable  soil  has  been  formed,  though  at  great  cost. 

The  more  level  parts  of  the  old  and  greatly  exhausted  fields,  and  the 
newly  cleared  wood-land,  (both  kinds  being  naturally  poor,  thin,  and  acid 
soils,)  are  the  only  lands  which  have  enjoyed  anything  like  the  full  bene- 
ficial effects  of  marling.  These  have  been  increased  in  product  from  5 
and  10  bushels  of  corn  per  acre  (which  may  be  considered  the  usual 
minimum  and  maximum  rates,)  to  at  least  20,  and  in  some  cases  to  30 
bushels,  even  without  the  aid  of  barn-yard  manure.  Where  putrescent 
manures  have  been  also  applied,  they  have  raised  the  products  much 
higher;  and  these  manures  are  now  as  durable  and  as  profitable  as  formerly 
they  were  fleeting  and  profitless  in  effect. 

The  before  poor  and  light  soil  which  formed  the  gi  eater  part  of  the  old 
arable  lands,  and  which  was  not  above  three  inches  in  depth,  (and  scarcely 
two  inches  when  in  its  natural  forest  state,)  is  now  seven  inches  or  more, 
and  requires  three-horse  ploughs  to  break  it  to  proper  depth,  where  the  one- 
horse  ploughs  formerly  would  frequently  reach  and  bring  up  the  barren 
subsoiL 

The  fertilizing  opcration-of  marl  has  Increased  with  time,  even  where  the 
effects  were  also  the  most  speedy,  and  most  profitable  on  the  first  crop  after 
the  application. 

The  soil,  which  before  was  totally  unable  to  support  red  clover,  is  now 
(except  on  the  most  sandy  spots)  well  adapted  to  the  growth,  and  capable, 
according  to  the  grade  of  fertility,  of  receiving  the  great  benefit  which  is 
offered  by  that  most  valuable  of  improving  en 

And  generally — notwithstanding  all  the  many  and  great  errors  committed 
in  my  marling,  (for  want  of  experience,)  and  of  still  worse  general  farm 
management— and  though  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  old  land  was 
either  but  little  or  not  at  all  fit  to  be  improved  by  marling— and  though  the 
land  added  since  by  new  clearings  was  all  very  poor,  and  worthless  for  its 
natural  producing  power—  still  the  general  annual  grain  products  of  the 
farm  have  been  increased  from  thr"e  to  four-fold,  and  the  net  profit  of  culti- 
vation and  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  land  have  been  increased  in  a  still  greater 
proportion. 

•  See  p   IU,  \ul.  in.  ot  Fan 


32 


254 


CALCAREOUS  .MAM'RLs— APPENDiX. 


Addendum,  1842. 

The  following  table  of  crops,  with  the  annexed  remarks  and  notes,  will 
perhaps  be  more  satisfactory  than  the  preceding  statements  of  general 
results,  besides  serving  to  bring  the  report  down  to  the  present  time. 

It  is  proper  to  premise,  that  after  1827  I  ceased  to  keep  a  regular  farm 
journal,  and  neglected  even  to  preserve  accounts  of  the  amount  of  crops.  Ill 
health  and  other  circumstances  had  caused  me  several  years  before  that  time 
to  withdraw  much  of  my  personal  attention  from  my  farming.  In  1830,  my 
residence  was  permanently  removed  from  the  farm,  and  thereafter  my 
superintendence  was  more  and  more  withdrawn,  until  it  ceased  entirely 
at  the  end  of  1838.  Hence  the  blanks  which  will  be  seen  in  this  part  of 
the  table.  At  the  close  of  1838,  my  eldest  son  became  the  part  owner  and 
occupant,  and  since  has  been  sole  director  of  the  farm.  Though  it  was 
then  placed  in  charge  of  a  new  beginner,  who  had  every  thing  to  learn  of 
farming,  the  management  has  since  been  much  improved,  and  consequently 
also  the  condition  and  production  of  the  farm,  as  shown  by  the  table. 

The  quantities  and  other  facts,  stated  below,  are  taken  from  careful 
memoranda  noted  at  the  times  of  the  occurrences,  and  are  precise  wherever 
presented  as  such,  according  to  the  best  lights  possessed  by  the  cultivator. 
But  the  volume  of  my  former  journal,  which  embraced  the  transactions  of 
1824  to  1827  inclusive,  has  been  lost;  and  for  want  of  recent  reference  to 
it,  there  may  be  some  inaccuracy  in  the  dates  only  of  operations  within  that 
time,  as  well  as  in  the  next  few  succeeding  years. 

TABLE  OF  CROPS  ON  COGGINi  POINT  FARM. 


- 

<  = 

1813 

1814 

1815 

1816 

1817 

1818 

f  15 

1819 

62 

1S20 

25 

1821 

80 

1S22 

93 

1S23 

100 

1824 

80 

1826 

50 

1826 

24 

1827 

§§27 

1S2S 

0 

1829 

0 

1S30 

50 

1831 

0 

1832 

0 

1836 

10 

1837 

0 

183S 

0 

1S39 

2 

1S40 

d2 

1841 

c32 

1S42 

30j 

145  810 

110  550 

78  520 
104  896 

79  595 
63  450 

132  1015 
119  1020 
160  1049 
154  1627 
139  1475 

194  1850 

195  1452 
170  1390 
151  1366 
153  936 
134  90S 


394e 
2056 
2117 
167  12521 
22S 1942 
212  2475 
2.50,3377 


5,;, 

5 

6?5 

St'tii 

- 

I 

<»rjj 


ill 

134 


125  2250    IS 


1340    sjyv 

1955  14Tyj 
2300  16  " 
2050  in'". 
»160  2670*  16)11 
al372000'  14  . 

1«- ;  -27->0-  17 
»  77  17755  23 

aiwteaso*  19ja 

158  3000*19 
156(3405*  214 

70  1251  17. 
13S  227 ."• 
104,1665*  16 
112  1750  15r., 
1332300 


126 


2S30  22Ty:. 


-  4415 

-  2620 

-  2070| 

190  4500  23{- 
143  3540  24* 
146  3S00  25} 
155  3.500yg2T95i 


37 
55 


600 
1000 

200 
1000 


5e 
10e 

10^ 


i:ndix 


Explanatory  remark*  on   the  land  and  it 


itity  ol  land  lor  cultivation   |  irts. )  at  first,  172  acn 

w  clearings  to   602  bj   1826;  lo662in  1832;  an. I  no  more  in    1*12  though 

30  more  acres  have  since  been  cleared  and  tilled,  because  a-  much  in  1886  converted  to  a 

inent  pasture.    -All  the  new  land  added   by  clearing  was  poor,  and  very  few  acres 

of  it  would  have  produced  more  than  10  bushels  of  corn,  or  .">  ol  ivhi  it  (without  the  marl- 
ing) after  the  :i  or  I  first  crops.  Of  course  the  new  land  added  served  to  reduce  instead 
ot  increasing  the  genet  i  luct  per  acre. 

Rotation   at   first   of  three-shifts,    viz.:    1    corn,   2   wheat   on  the    richer   half,   3   at 
rest,  and  alter  1814  not  glazed.    This  changed  gradually  to  I  shifts  (by  1823)  of  i  corn, 
2  wheal,  8  and  I  at  r->t.    1820  began  to  tallow  for  wheat,  in  part  and  only  in  some 
1      U  low  the  wheat  fields  generally  in  clover, -and  about  i- 

■   apart  (say  one-fourth  to  one-third)  of  each  clover  lull  for  wheal  the  ye 
ceding  the  crop  of  corn.    This  changed  in   1*  10  to  a  five-shift  rotation,  one-filth  of  the 
arable  land  being  in  corn,  two-fifths  in  wh.-at  (and  oats)  and  two-fifths  in  clover,  or  other 
or  manuring  crops. 

ol  wheat  lor  first  six  years  (1  used  on  the  richer  parts  of  each 

shift,  making  about  one-half  the  land  only;  the  other  hall  being  then  much  too  poorto  be 
sown.  As  these  poorest  parts  were  marled,  all  were  sown  in  wheat,  in  their  turn. 
Therefore,  the  earlier  average  products  of  v.  as  stated,  were  for  the 

halt  of  the  land,  while  since  1822  the  average  is  lor  the  worst  as  well  as  the  best  laud  of 
each  shilt. 

Grazing  the  clover  fields  commenced  partially  about  ls:iO,  and  increased  since.  Lat- 
terly about  20  head  of  cattle   and  100  ol  hogs  on  the  clover  during  the  grazing  season. 

The  crops  of  hay,  corn-todder,  8cc,  being  all  consumed  on  the  farm,  their  products 
have  not  been  estimated. 

Notes  on  particular  o 

a  1818  to  '22  inclusive,  '27  acres  of  rich  embanked  marsh  in  corn  every  year,  which 
served  to  increase  these  crops,  and  their  average— which  land   sunk  too  low  alter  1823 
for  corn,  and  has  since  been  under  the  tide. 
1  In  1818,  the  first  marling. 

Is  on  17  acres. 
1829  to  1*30,  a  succession  of  bad  seasons  for  wheat,  or  of  crops — made  much  worse 
(as  I  afterwards  believed,)  by  the  land  having  been  so  long  kept  from  being  grazed  and 
trodden  by  cattle. 

•  These  crops  not  actually  measured,  but  amounts  otherwise  estimated.     All  other 
quantities  measured,  unless  slat,  d  otherwise. 
§  The  richer  half  of  the  shift  only  cultivated  in  corn  this  year  (1S21.) 
§$  Marling  nearly  extended  over  all  the  cleared  arable  land  requiring  it,  and  injurious 
where  too 

From  1825  to  1«30  inclusive,  (he  richest  land  of  the  f.rm  kept  under  cotton,  which 
served  greatly  to  less  n  the  general  products,  and  still  more  the  average  product  per  acre 
of  the  wheat  crops,  during  that  time. 

■  ight  as  sold,  or  170  lbs.  to  the  acre. 
•5,  the  wheat  crop  nearly  destroyed   by  rust,  as  was  general  through  eastern  Vir- 
ginia. 

t  Corn  crop  of  IS.-N   and  wheat  crop  of  l-:!lt  very  much  lessened   bv  the  ravages  of 
the  chinch-bug. 
c,  c,  On  26  of  these  acres  the  marling  was  a  second  application. 

<l  The  crops  of  oats  being  consumed  on  the  farm,  were  never  measured,  but  the  quan- 
tities estimated  by  the  land  sown,  at  2o  bushels  lo  the  acre. 

e  The  root  crops,  (turnips  and  beets,)  and  pumpkins  and  cymblins,  occupied  part  of 
the  most  highly  enriched  land— all  consumed  on  the  farm,  and  products  not  estimated. 

•>  The  crop  of  corn  of  1848  stated  upon  supposition,  it  not  being  half  gathered  when 
this  article  was  prepared. 


256  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

NOTE  VII. 
{From  the  Farmers'  Register  of  Oct-  1835.) 

INQUIRY  INTO  THE  CAUSES  OF  THE  FORMATION  OF  PRAIRIES,  AND  OF  THE  PET- 
LIAR  CONSTITUTION  OF  SOIL.  WHICH  FAVORS  OR  PREVENTS  THE  DESTRUCTION 
OF   THE    GROWTH    OF    FORESTS. 

Introductory  remarks. 

The  views  which  will  be  presented  in  the  following  pages  are  in  part 
founded  on  others  which  were  maintained,  and  are  considered  as  establish- 
ed in  the  'Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures'— as,  for  example,  the  doctrine  of 
the  existence  and  causes  of  acid  and  still  more  of  neutral  soils— the  chemi- 
cal power  of  calcareous  earth  to  combine  with  and  to  fix  vegetable  or  other 
putrescent  matter  in  soils— and  that  a  certain  proportion  of  lime,  in  some 
form,  is  essential  to  every  productive  soil,  and  without  which  ingredient 
the  land  would  be  barren,  and  incapable  of  being  enriched.  As  the  repeti- 
tion here  of  the  whole  train  of  argument  by  which  those  doctrines  were 
sustained  would  be  both  unnecessary  and  improper,  it  may  be  permitted 
merely  to  refer  to  the  work  named  for  these  positions,  as  premises  esta- 
blished, and  either  known,  or  accessible  to  every  one  who  may  feel  inte- 
rest in  the  further  extension  and  consideration  of  the  same  general  sub- 
ject, which  is  here  designed. 

The  necessity  of  making  frequent  reference  to  a  previous  and  avowed 
work,  and  also  the  having  elsewhere  stated  the  general  purport  of  this,  will 
prohibit  the  writer  from  presenting  this  continuation  anonymously;  which 
otherwise  would  have  been  preferable,  both  on  account  of  the  writer's 
connexion  with  the  journal  in  which  this  will  appear,  and  because  the  sub- 
feet  is  one  which  will  derive  no  support  from  its  origin,  being  a  matter  of 
general  argument  resting  on  facts  and  authorities  within  the  reach  of  every 
reader.  But  as  these  circumstances  made  it  necessary  that  the  piece 
should  not  be  anonymous,  for  convenience  the  ordinary  form  of  a  com- 
munication to  the  Farmers'  Register  has  been  adopted.  Whatever  of  oppo- 
sition to  editorial  usage  may  appear  in  these  respects,  it  is  hoped  will  be 
sufficiently  accounted  for,  and  held  excused  by  the  existing  circumstances. 
However  confident  the  writer  may  be  of  the  main  positions  which  he  will 
aim  to  establish  in  the  following  pages,  he  is  sensible  that  he  is  venturing 
upon  a  new  field  of  investigation,  which  is  as  yet  unexplored— and  indeed 
almost  untouched,  except  by  those  who  have  paid  no  attention  to  the  pro- 
blem to  be  solved,  or  of  others  who,  with  better  lights  of  science,  have  fallen 
into  gross  and  manifest  errors  and  mistakes.  Under  such  circumstances, 
he  cannot  expect  to  avoid  being  misled  in  many  particulars;  and  he  will 
be  gratified  at  having  such  errors  corrected,  and  the  subject  fully  and 
properly  treated  by  any  other  person  possessing  better  means  for  receiving 
information,  and  pursuing  this  interesting  subject  of  inquiry. 

General  and  erroneous  opinions  respecting-  the  growth  or  absence  of  trees  on 
land  in  a  state  of  nature. 

There  exists  a  wide-spread  and  strongly  marked  difference  between  the 
lands  of  different  regions  of  the  globe,  in  their  being  covered,  or  not,  with 
trees,  before  being  subjected  to  cultivation.  But  striking  and  strongly  con- 
trasted as  are  these  different  aspects  of  parts  of  the  earth's  surface,  and 
much  as  each  kind,  when  a  novel  scene,  has  drawn  forth  expressions  of 
wonder  and  admiration  from  travellers,  the  causes  have  not  been  sought  — 


CAECARE0U8  MANURES— APPENDIX.  257 

indeed  have  scarcely  attracted  any  attention.  Vet,  even  If  considered  as 
a  mere  matter  of  curiosity,  not  likely  to  bring  to  lisrtit  any  thing  of  practi- 
cal use,  there  is  scarcely  one  of  Nature's  riddles  which  would  .seem  better 
calculated  to  interest  philosophical,  and  especially  agricultural  investigators. 
These  very  different  kinds  of  garb  which  are  worn  by  different  regions  of 
the  earth,  extend  over  vast  spaces,  and  of  course  arc  accompanied  with 
many  remarkable  changes  both  of  climate  and  soil.  It  follows  that  there 
are  not  many  persons  who  have  been  accustomed  to  more  than  one  of 
these  conditions  of  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  and  those  who  have  been,  were 
not  of  the  class  the  best  qualified  for  investigating  the  subject.  The  first 
European  settlers  of  North  America  were,  by  the  contrast  to  their  native 
lands,  the  more  forcibly  impressed  by  the  magnificent  forests  of  which  there 
seemed  to  be  no  end,  and  no  change,  except  from  the  greater  abundance 
of  one  luxuriant  and  gigantic  growth  to  that  of  others.  But  this  universal 
cover  of  the  land,  so  different  from  any  thing  before  known,  was  merely 
described  with  admiration  by  Europeans.  No  cause  was  sought  for,  or 
thought  wanting ;  and  they  remained  content  with  most  erroneously  attri- 
buting the  luxuriant  growth  of  trees  to  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and  the 
want  of  the  labors  of  tillage.* 

The  children  of  the  early  settlers  grew  up  among  forests,  and  they  and 
their  children,  judging  from  all  they  saw,  learned  to  consider  that  almost 
all  soils,  rich  or  poor,  naturally  would  be  covered  by  trees ;  and  while 
falling  into  this  error,  they  at  least  got  rid  of  that  of  their  forefathers,  in  con- 
necting the  idea  of  a  luxuriant  forest  growth  with  great  fertility.  When 
the  spread  of  population  finally  brought  the  latter  descendants  to  the  borders 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  great  prairies  of  the  west  first  opened  to  their 
astonished  view,  this  change  was  as  great  as  unaccountable,  and  yet  the 
cause  as  little  sought,  as  that  of  the  universal  forest  state  had  been  by  the 
first  emigrants  from  Europe.     But  ignorant  wonder  soon  ceases,  and  leads 

*  The  words  of  the  founder  of  Virginia,  C  ipt.  John  Smith,  show  that  the  noble  growth 
of  trees  which  he  and  the  other  first  European  visiter*  found,  gave  them  a  very  high  and 
certainly  mistaken  opinion  of  the  general  fertility  of  Lower  Virginia.  "Within  [tin 
capes  of  Virginia.]  is  a  countrey  that  may  have  the  prerogative  over  the  most  pleasant 
places  knowne,  foi  large  and  pleasant  navigable  rivers:  heaven  and  earth  never. ._ 
better  to  frame  a  place  for  man's  habitation,  wero  it  fully  manured  and  inhabited  by 
industrious  people.  Here  are  mountains,  hils,  plaines,  valleyes,  rivers,  and  brookes,  all 
running  most  pleasantly  into  a  faire  bay,  compassed,  but  for  the  mouth,  wi'h  fruitful  and 

delightsome  land." "  The  vesture  of  the  earth  in  most  places  doth  manilestly  proue 

the  nature  of  the  soy  I  to  be  lusty  and  very  rich.  The  colour  of  the  earth  we  found  in 
diverse  places  resembleth  bole  jlrmoniac,  terra  a  sigillata,  and  Lemnia,  fuller's  earth, 
marie,  and  divers  other  such  appearances.  But  generally  for  the  most  part  it  is  a 
blacke  sandy  mould,  and  in  some  places  a  fit  slimy  clay,  and  in  other  places  a  very 
barren  graved.  But  the  best  ground  is  knowne  by  the  vesture  it  beareth,  as  by  the 
greatnesse  of  trees,  or  abundance  of  weeds,  8cc." "  Virginia  doth  afford  many  ex- 
cellent vegetables,  and  living  creatures,  yet  giasse  there  is  little  or  none,  but  what  jrenv- 
eth  in  low  marishes  :  for  all  the  countrey  is  overgrowne  with  trees,  whose  droppings 
continually  tumetli  their  grasse  to  weeds,  by  reason  of  the  ranckness  of  the  ground, 
which  would  soone  be  amended  by  good  husbandry.  The  wood  that  is  most  common 
is  oke  and  walnut,  many  of  their  okes  are  so  tall  and  straight  that  they  will  beare  two 

foote  and  a  halfe  square  of  good  timber  for  20  yards  long." (Second  Booke  of  the  Tut 

TraieU,  .idventvres,  and  Observations  of  Captaine  lohn  Smith,  Sfc.  London,  1629.)  Cap- 
tain Smith  was  altogether  unskilled  in  agriculture,  and  it  may  be  presumed  that  when 
he  spoke  of  the  need  of  such  rich  land  being  "  fully  manured,"  as  well  as  inhabited,  he 
meant  nothing  more  than  that  it  should  be  properly  cultivated — of  which,  manuring  was 
deemed  a  general  and  necessary  part.  But  this  accidental  (and  according  to  his  views, 
erroneous)  expression,  was  much  nearer  the  truth  than  the  opinion  of  fertility  being 
proved  by  the  "  greatnesse  of  trees ;"  for  much  the  greater  part  of  the  land  bearing  the 
largest  and  most  magnificent  growth  of  oaks,  pines,  and  other  common  trees,  was  in 
truth  poor  then,  and  will  ever  remain  so,  without  the  application  of  calcareous  matter. 


258  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 

to  no  profitable  search  for  causes,  or  for  truth.  The  children  of  the  first 
settlers  of  the  west  have  grown  up  among  prairies ;  and  when  another 
century  shall  have  passed,  and  our  frontier  settlements  shall  have  reached 
the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  it  may  begin  to  be  believed  there,  that 
the  forest  state  is  rarely  known  to  nature,  and  is  only  produced  by  the 
labors  and  care  of  man.  So  the  Bedouin  Arab  thinks  the  world  is  made  of 
naked  sand — and  the  Shetlander's  world  is  of  wet  peat. 

Of  course  these  general  remarks  apply  to  those  who  are  acquainted  only 
with  some  one  region  of  the  world,  and  who  have  not  been  informed  of 
others  by  books,  any  more  than  by  travel.  Among  the  more  learned,  there 
has  been  no  lack  of  causes  assigned  for  these  opposite  appearances ;  but 
they  are  such  as  to  show  a  strange  disregard  of  all  the  requisites  of  sound 
reasoning,  and  of  accurate  investigation.  Any  reason  that  was  first  ad- 
vanced, however  insufficient,  however  absurd,  seems  to  have  been  readily 
admitted,  and  to  have  passed  current  from  one  traveller,  or  writer,  to  ano- 
ther. Thus,  to  the  annual  fires  alone  has  been  attributed  the  destruction 
of  trees,  and  the  formation  of  the  great  prairies  of  the  west ;  and  this  cause 
has  been  deemed  sufficient  by  both  the  learned  and  the  ignorant.  The  ob- 
jection to  it  is,  that  all  the  Atlantic  slope  was  burned  over  as  often  as  the 
west,  before  the  settlement  of  the  country,  and  in  the  former  (at  least  east 
of  the  mountains)  not  one  acre  of  prairie  had  been  produced. 

Philosophical  writers  have  maintained  supposed  causes  of  the  destruction 
of  the  forests  which  formerly  covered  England,  which  are  very  plausible 
when  considered  alone.  But  precisely  similar  causes  have  been  operating 
long  and  generally  in  this  country,  and  our  forests  not  only  do  not  decay 
and  die,  but  continue  to  defy  every  agent  of  injury,  except  the  thorough  use 
of  the  axe  and  plough.  Even  where  long  continued  tillage  has  the  most  ef- 
fectually eradicated  the  natural  and  original  forest  growth,  if  the  impover- 
ished land  is  merely  let  alone  for  thirty  years,  it  will  (in  most  cases)  be 
better  covered  with  a  new  growth  of  trees,  than  the  utmost  care  could  raise 
in  England.  Examples  of  the  facts  and  reasoning  referred  to  are  presented 
in  the  following  passage  from  Davy.  •'  In  instances  where  successive  gene- 
rations of  vegetables  have  grown  upon  a  soil,  unless  part  of  their  produce 
has  been  carried  off  by  man,  or  consumed  by  animals,  the  vegetable  matter 
increases  in  such  a  proportion,  that  the  soil  approaches  to  a  peat  in  its 
nature ;  and  if  in  a  situation  where  it  can  receive  water  from  a  higher  dis- 
trict, it  becomes  spongy,  and  permeated  with  that  fluid,  and  is  gradually 
rendered  incapable  of  supporting  the  nobler  classes  of  vegetables. 

"Many  peat-mosses  seem  to  have  been  formed  by  the  destruction  of 
forests,  in  consequence  of  the  imprudent  use  of  the  hatchet  by  the  early 
cultivators  of  the  country  in  which  they  exist:  when  the  trees  are  felled  in 
the  out-skirts  of  the  wood,  those  in  the  interior  are  exposed  to  the  influence 
of  the  winds ;  and  having  been  accustomed  to  shelter,  become  unhealthy, 
and  die  in  their  new  situation,  and  their  leaves-and  branches,  gradually  de- 
composing, produce  a  stratum  of  vegetable  matter.  In  many  of  the  great 
bogs  in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  the  larger  trees  that  are  found  in  the  out-skirts 
of  them  bear  the  marks  of  having  been  felled.  In  the  interior,  few  entire 
trees  are  found ;  and  the  cause  is,  probably,  that  they  fell  by  gradual  decay ; 
and  that  the  fermentation  and  decomposition  of  the  vegetable  matter  was 
most  rapid  where  it  was  in  the  greatest  quantity." — \_Lec.  4.]  In  Virginia 
no  one  forest  tree  has  been  known  to  die,  or  even  to  decline,  from  being 
exposed  in  the  manner  above  described  as  so  fatal :  and  such  effects  being 
produced  in  England  would  only  prove  that  the  soil  was  unfavorable  to  trees. 
and  their  life  therefore  feeble  and  sickly,  and  ready  to  yield  to  any  new  and 
considerable  cause  of  injury. 


CM  A  INI  RES— APPKNDI1  2/J9 

The  entire  trross  the  Pampas  between  Bu- 

enos Ayres  and  the  Andes,  lias  been  still  more  absurdly  attributed  to  the 
winds  across  those  w  ide  plains  with 

such  violence,  that  no  trees  could  withstand  their  power.  I  have  seen  in 
our  forests  where  a  hurricane  had  uprooted  or  broken  off  every  tree  of  size 
in  its  course.     Hut   no  wind  could  3  uil'  and  flexible   under- 

wood; and  if  such  winds  swept  the  same  track  every  year,  or  every 
month,  they  would  not  prevent  it  being  thickly  covered  with  youn<r  sapling 

The  downs  in  England,  which  have  not  been  tilled  for  hundreds  of  years, 
and  are  only  valuable  lor  sheep  pasture,  show  no  rising  growth  of  trees. 
This  is  not  held  strange  there,  but  would  l»  niliciently  account- 

ed for  by  the  poverty  of  the  soil,  and  the  (supposed)  impossibility  of  young 
trees  growing,  even  if  planted  on  ofx-n  pasture  land,  without  any  care,  and 
where  they  were  always  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  live  stock.  But  in 
Virginia,  no  degree  of  poverty,  no  exposure  to  grazing,  will  prevent  unfilled 
land  growing  up  in  wood.  Annual  fires,  grazing  animals,  and  poverty, 
wetness  or  sandiness  of  soil,  all  may  prevent  the  growth  of  trees,  as 
alleged  In  different  countries j  but  all  these  are  but  secondary  causes  which 
would  have  little  or  no  effect,  without  the  more  powerful  operation  of  some 
other  and  primary  cause.  This  cause  will  be  found  m  the  peculiar  constitu- 
tion of  the  noil;  and  I  will  proceed  to  state  my  reasons  for  believing  that 
the  cause  of  the  different  conditions  of  land  as  to  being  naturally  covered 
with  trees,  or  not  so  in  general  is  merely  the  deficiency  of  lime  in  the  soil,  or 
its  abundance— the  former  state  being  friendly  to  forest  growth,  and  the 
latter  being  as  unfriendly.  Or — in  terms  so  general  as  to  cover  all  the  ex- 
ceptions which  will  hereafter  be  admitted  to  the  foregoing  position— it  may 
ted,  that  the  formation  of  prairies.  &e.,  is  caused  by  Me  existence  of 
sucli  i  ,ater  degree 

than  the  growth  aftrmi — and  of  all  such  circumstances,  the  abundance  of 
■ous  matter  in  the  soil  is  the  most  efficient. 

In  addressing  readers  residing  in,  or  otherwise  well  acquainted  with  the 
Atlantic  states,  it  is  unnecessary  to  adduce  facts  to  prove  the  general  and 
strong  disposition  of  the  soil  to  prodm  ■  trees,  In  vigor  and  luxuriance— to 
the  labors  of  man  for  their  destruction— and  to  return  to  the  state  of 
forest  whenever  tillage  is  intermitted.  No  unfilled  land  will  long  remain 
naked,  or  in  grass ;  and  even  under  a  regular  rotation  of  crops,  the  labor  of 
grubbing  to  destroy  young  trees  is  continually  required  on  most  lands,  and 
particularly  on  those  originally  of  inferior  quality.  Our  poorest  lands  in 
lower  Virginia,  are  generally  covered  with  young  pines  in  four  or  five  years 
after  being  left  without  tillage,  and  their  after-growth  is  as  rapid  and  heavy 
as  European  timber  growers  would  expect  on  the  best  lands,  and  with  every 
care  bestowed  for  that  end.  Hut  it  is  not  only  to  pines,  (though  that  is  the 
most  striking  case.)  that  this  applies.  In  the  higher  and  suffer  lands,  where 
pines  are  rare, the  sprtaging  of  other  young  trees  shows  the  same  general 
tendency  of  the  soil.  If  this  tendency  can  be  said  to  be  feeble  any  where 
in  lower  Virginia  (and  it  may  be  presumed  that  the  i  f  things  ex- 

ists in  all  the  Atlantic  states,)  it  is  on  the  few  naturally  rich  soils  on  the 
rivers,  some  of  which  are  the  only  lands  naturally  calcareous  in  the  country, 
and  all  of  which  derived  their  natural  fertility  and  permanent  value  from 
sing  lime  in  some  form  as  an  ingredient  In  the  '  Essay  on  Calcareous 
Manures'  proofs  have  been  exhibited  of  this  supposed  quality  of  such  lands,* 
and  therefore  they  will  not  !*■  repeated  here.     It  .  maintaned 

•  Part  I  .  chapter  vii. — On  neutral  soils. 


260  CALCARF.OUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

in  the  same  work,  and  the  proofs  exhibited  at  length,  that  in  Virginia  and 
the  Atlantic  states  generally  there  are  few  soils  containing  naturally  any 
portion  whatever  of  carbonate  of  lime — and  all  the  vast  region  which  is  so 
peculiarly  constituted  in  being  destitute  of  this  ingredient,  is  precisely  that 
which  so  strongly  favors  the  growth  of  trees. 

Over  all  this  great  extent  of  country,  we  may  suppose  that  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants  sent  fires  every  year  to  aid  their  hunting.  Indeed  it  would  have 
been  scarcely  possible  to  avoid  it,  when  almost  the  whole  country  was  un- 
der one  great  forest,  and  the  entire  surface  covered  with  dry  leaves.  For 
more  than  a  century  after  the  settlement  of  the  present  race  of  civilized  in- 
habitants, fires  passed  over  the  wood-land  almost  every  spring — caused 
either  by  the  carelessness  or  design  of  hunters,  or  by  the  farmers  to  forward 
the  growth  of  grass  for  their  cattle.  It  required  legal  prohibitions,  added  to 
the  general  extension  of  tillage,  and  the  great  damage  of  burning  fences, 
&c,  to  put  a  stop  to  this  practice  of  burning  the  woods.  Even  in  these 
latter  times  we  hear  of  fires  of  tremendous  fury  sweeping  hundreds  of 
square  miles  in  Maine,  destroying  timber,  and  every  combustible  matter  on 
the  few  small  farms  in  this  yet  wild  region.  Yet  no  where  below  the  moun- 
tains, nor  in  any  poor  region,  has  the  wood  growth  been  destroyed—  nor 
has  an  acre  of  prairie  been  thus  formed,  whether  on  land  rich  or  poor. 
This  is  enough  to  prove  that  no  violence  or  frequency  of  fires  can  destroy 
'  and  keep  down  the  growth  of  trees,  unless  aided  by  some  other  and  more 
efficient  agent. 

The  most  general  cause  of  the  absence  of  trees. 

The  next  position  that  will  be  assumed  is,  that  most  of  the  prairies,  pam- 
pas, steppes  and  downs,  which  are  bare  of  wood,  though  never  tilled,  are 
highly  calcareous,  and  therefore  unfriendly  to  the  growth  of  trees. 

The  proofs  necessary  to  maintain  such  wide  ground,  directly  and  abso- 
lutely, would  require  more  of  time,  and  labor  of  investigation,  than  the  la- 
bors and  life  of  any  one  individual  would  suffice  for;  therefore  the  facts  that 
will  be  offered  are  considered  only  as  specimens  of  the  thousands  which  the 
world  could  furnish,  and  to  be  taken  as  fair  samples  of  all,  only  while  they 
remain  uncontradicted  by  other  opposing  facts.  No  traveller  having  (to  my 
knowledge)  sought  to  learn  or  to  report  any  particular  information  as  to  the 
constitution  of  such  soils,  or  having  attached  any  importance  to  the  pre- 
sence or  absence  of  calcareous  ingredients,  I  have  only  been  able  to  gather 
indirectly  from  their  observations  the  scattered  testimony  which  will  be  ad- 
duced. Unfortunately  no  traveller  has  been  a  scientific  agriculturist ;  and 
though  many  have  been  mineralogists,  geologists,  or  chemists,  they  have 
given  no  attention  to  the  constitution  of  the  soils  over  which  they  passed, 
nor  did  any  seem  to  consider  that  the  composition  of  the  soil  had  any  bear- 
ing on  its  strange  external  features,  which  were  the  theme  of  their  admira- 
tion. Dr.  Clarke,  distinguished  as  he  deservedly  was  as  a  man  of  science, 
has  told  as  little  of  the  nature  of  the  soil  of  the  Russian  steppes,  as  most  of 
the  least  uninformed  of  the  observers  of  our  prairies. 

Proofs— derived  from  the  general  description  of  prairies,  pampas,  steppes,  Sfc. 

Before  entering  more  upon  particulars,  in  addressing  readers  who  are  ge- 
nerally (like  the  writer)  accustomed  only  to  soils  favorable  to  trees,  it  is  pro- 
per to  describe  generally  the  features  of  the  great  regions  which  are  bare  of 
such  growth,  and  which,  under  the  different  names  of  prairies,  barrens,  and 
sai'annas   in  North   America,  pampas   in  South  America,  and  steppes  in 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX.  2<j  1 


Russia  and  Tartary,  form  a  very  large  portion  of  those  parts  of  the  globe- 
All  of  these,  with  various  grades  of  fertility,  and  many  points  of  difference 
in  other  respects,  agree  in  being,  or  having  been  at  some  time  when  in  a 
state  of  nature,  bare  of  trees,  or  nearly  so,  and  in  being  clothed  with  grass 
of  greater  or  less  luxuriance. 

The  word  "prairie"  was  first  applied  by  the  French  colonists,  and  means, 
in  their  language,  a  meadofe.  Tin'  nam''  therefore  plainly  enough  designat- 
ed all  land  covered  only  with  grass.  The  name  of"  barrens,"  so  strangely 
applied  in  Kentucky  to  very  rich  lands,  of  this  kind,  was  owing  to  the  re- 
semblance of  the  dry  grass  on  these  lands  to  the  broom  grass  which  covers 
and  grows  luxuriantly  on  the  naturally  poor  soils  of  lower  Virginia,  when 
left  out  of  cultivation.  This  resemblance  caused  the  surveyors  who  w  ere 
sent  to  lay  off  the  Virginia  military  lands,  to  reject  these  as  barren  soil,  and 
the  term  then  so  erroneously  applied  to  an  extensive  region,  has  still  con- 
tinued to  be  used,  and  even  has  been  extended  to  similar  lands  elsewhere. 

It  will"  be  most  sure  and  satisfactory  to  use  the  language  of  the  writers 
who  have  seen  and  described  these  regions,  rather  than  to  attempt  a  more 
general  and  condensed  description,  at  the  risk  of  changing  the  purport  of 
their  expressions.  None  of  these  writers,  nor  any  that  I  have  been  able  to 
consult,  give  any  direct  and  positive  testimony  derived  from  analysis,  as  to 
the  soil  being  supplied,  or  not,  with  calcareous  ingredients.  It  is  only  from 
incidental  observations  of  the  nature  of  the  rocky  subsoil,  the  kinds  of  grass, 
&c,  that  any  information  of  this  kind  has  been  indirectly  gathered.  All  that 
can  be  said  is,  that  such  testimony,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is  in  favor  of  the  calca- 
reous composition  of  such  soils  generally.  Such  expressions  as  most 
strongly  (though  indirectly)  support  my  views  of  the  constitution  of  prairie 
soils,  or  show  a  resemblance  of  one  of  these  regions  to  some  other  better 
known,  will  be  put  in  italics. 

The  first  extracts  will  be  from  the  Views  of  Louisiana,  by  H.  M.  Breck- 
enridge,  a  writer  intimately  acquainted  with  the  western  country,  and  who 
describes  what  he  had  travelled  over  and  seen.  The  Louisiana  of  which 
this  work  treats  includes  not  only  the  state  as  now  bounded,  but  all  the  vast 
region  lying  west  of  the  Mississippi,  formerly  held  under  that  general  name 
by  the  French  and  Spanish  governments. 

"This  extensive  portion  of  North  America,  has  usually  been  described 
from  the  inconsiderable  part  which  is  occupied  by  the  settlements,  as  though 
it  were  confined  to  the  immediate  borders  of  the  Mississippi,  as  Egypt  is  to 
those  of  the  .Nile.  By  some,  it  is  represented  in  general  description  as  a 
low,  flat  region,  abounding  in  swamps  and  subject  to  inundation  ;  which  is 
the  same  thing  as  if  the  Netherlands  should  furnish  a  description  for  all  the 
rest  of  Europe.     Others  speak  of  Louisiana  as  one  vast  forest  of  wilderness: 

"  Missouri  marches  through  the  world  of  wood? ;" 

which  is  far  from  being  the  case,  for  excepting  on  the  banks  of  this  river, 
and  that  not  more  than  one-half  its  course,  the  country  through  which  it 
passes  is  deplorably  deficient  in  woods.  If,  then,  we  are  to  describe.  Lou- 
isiana, not  from  a  small  district,  important  berause  already  the  seat  of 
population,  but  from  the  appearance  of  the  whole,  combined  in  a  general 
view,  we  should  say,  that  it  is  an  extensive  region  of  open  plains  and  mea- 
dows, interspersed  with  bare  untillable  hil/x,  and  with  the  exception  of  some 
fertile  tracts  in  the  vicinity  of  the  great  rivers  by  which  it  is  traversed,  re- 
sembling the  grassy  steppes  of  Tartary  or  the  Saharas  of  Africa,  but  with- 
out the  numerous  morasses  and  dull  uniformity  of  the  one,  or  the  dreary 
•terility  of  the  other.  The  fertile  tracts  are  chiefly  to  be  found  In  the 
33 


Vg2  CALCAREOUS   MANURES— Al'PENBlX. 

narrow  valleys  of  the  great  rivers  Missouri,  Mississippi,  Arkansas,  Red 
river,  and  some  of  their  principal  tributaries;  the  two  largest  bodies  of 
fertile  soil  are  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi,  which  is  much  interspersed  with 
lakes,  marshes,  and  sunken  lands,  that  will  require  ages  to  reclaim,  and  the 
territory  of  the  Missouri,  as  limited  by  the  boundaries  lately  agreed  on  with 
the  Indians,  which  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  AVest  Tennessee  in 
some  of  its  features.'' — pp.  6 

"A  remarkable  feature  in  this  western  side  of  the  great  valley  [of  the 
Mississippi]  is  its  deficiency  of  wood,  while  the  opposite  (with  the  excep- 
tion of  some  parts  on  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio,  where  the  woods  have  been 
burnt,)  is  a  close  and  deep  forest.  The  woods  continue  for  a  short  distance 
up  the  Mississippi  before  they  disappear,  and  the  grassy  plains  begin.  The 
banks  of  the  Missouri  are  clo: bed.  with  luxuriant  forest  trees  for  three  or 
four  hundred  miles,  after  which  they  gradually  become  bare,  and  the  trees 
diminish  in  size ;  at  first  we  find  thin  groves  of  the  kind  of  poplar  called 
cotton  wood,  but  of  a  diminutive  growth,  intermixed  with  willows ;  next 
the  same  tree,  reduced  to  half  its  height,  and  resembling  an  orchard  tree  ; 
after  this  a  thin  border  of  shrubbery  is  almost  the  only  ornament  of  the 
margin  of  the  river.  The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  Arkansas  and 
Red  river. 

"  Taking  the  distance  to  the  mountains  to  be  about  nine  hundred  miles, 
of  the  first  two  hundred,  the  larger  proportion  on  the  Missouri  and  its 
waters  is  well  adapted  to  agricultural  sett'ements,  its  soil  and  conveniences 
are  equal  if  not  superior  to  those  of  Tennessee  or  Illinois;  this  tract  will 
include  the  greater  part  of  the  White  and  Osage  rivers,  the  lower  Missouri, 
and  for  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  north  of  this  last  river.  The 
proportion  of  wood  gradually  lessens  to  the  west,  and  still  more  to  the 
north,  with  the  addition  that  the  lands  become  of  an  inferior  quality.  For 
the  next  three  hundred  miles,  the  country  will  scarcely  admit  of  compact 
settlements  of  any  great  extent;  the  wooded  parts  form  trifling  exceptions 
to  its  general  surface,  and  are  never  met  with  but  on  the  margin  of  the 
rivers.  We  may  safely  lay  it  down,  that  after  the  first  two  hundred  miles, 
no  trees  are  found  on  the  uplands,  save  stinted  pines  or  cedars ;  the  rest 
of  the  country  consists  of  open  plains  of  vast  magnitude,  stretching  beyond 
the  boundary  of  the  eye,  and  chequered  by  numerous  waving  ridges,  which 
enable  the  traveller  to  see  his  long  wearisome  journey  of  several  days  before 
him.  Yet,  it  does  not  seem  to  me,  that  the  soil  of  this  tract  is  any  where 
absolutely  unproductive  ;  it  is  uniformly  covered  with  herbage,  though  net 
long  and  luxuriant  like  that  of  th3  plants  nearer  the  centre  of  the  valley; 
it  is  short  and  close,  but  more  nutritious  to  the  wild  herds,  than  the  coarse 
grass  of  the  common  prairie.  This  tract  has  not  the  dreary  barrenness 
described  by  Johnson  in  his  Tour  to  the  Hebrides ;  the  green  carpet  which 
covers,  and  the  beautiful  shrubberies  which  adorn  it,  afford  relief  to  the 
eye.  But  again,  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  trees  could  be  cultivated  ;  for 
I  observed  that  the  trees  which  by  accident  are  permitted  to  grow,  are  but 
dwarfs ;  the  oak  for  instance,  is  not  larger  than  an  orchard  tree,  the  plumb 
is  nothing  more  than  a  shrub,  in  some  places  not  exceeding  a  currant  bush. 
There  are,  however,  scattered  over  the  immense  waste,  a  number  of  spots 
which  greatly  surpass  in  beauty  any  thing  I  have  ever  seen  to  the  east  of  the 
Mississippi.  But  there  are  others,  again,  barren  in  the  extreme,  producing 
nothing  in  the  best  soil  but  hyssop  and  the  prickly  pear." — pp.  69,  7 1 . 

"Thus  it  appears,  that  with  the  exception  of  a  belt  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty,  or  two  hundred  miles  in  width,  at  most,  stretching  from  the  Missouri, 
in  a  line  parallel  with  the  course  of  the  Mississippi,  across  the  Arkansas  and 
Red  river  to  the  Sabine,  about  twice  the  territory  of  New  York,  but  not  a 


iREOl  s  mani  ki  -     VPPJ 


tenth  part  of  the  western  section  of  the  valley,  the  ;  Louisiana  is 

little  better  than  a  barren  waste,  and  that  the  eastern  side  will  alwaj 
tain  a  tnoch  greater  population."— p! 

"This  western  region,  it  is  certain,  can  never  become  agricultural;  but  it 
is  I"  many  hly  favorable  for  the  multiplication  of  floe!. 

herds  lightful  spots,  where  the  beauty  and  variety  of  the  land- 

scape  might  challenge  the  fancy  of  the  □  pastoral  life. 

How  admirably  adapted  to  the  interesting  little  animal,  the  sheep,  are  those 
clean  smooth  meadows,  of  a  surface  so  infinitely  varied  by  hill  and  dale, 
covered  with  a  short  sweet  grass,  Intermixed  with  thousands  of  the  most 
beautiful  (lowers,  undeformed  by  a  single  w< 

"I  confess  that,  to  me,  nature  never  wore  an  aspect  so  lovely  as  on  the 
'"'"''y  P]»tas  "'  the  west     Krom  their  dry  and  unsheltered   surface,  no 
damp  and   unwholesome  vapors   rise  to   lessen  the  elasticity  of  (he   , 
dim  the  brilliant  blue  of  the  heavens.     So  transparent  is  the 
that  a  slight  smoke  can  be  discerned  at  the  distance  of  many  miles,  which 
curiously  exercises  the  caution  and  sagacity  of  the  fearful  sa\ 
the  watch  to  destroy,  or  to  avoid  destruott  n,  that  sublii 

mensity  which  surrounds  us;  the  sea  in  motion  is  a  sublime  object,  but  n  .t 
to  be  compared  to  the  varied  scenes  which   here   present  themselves, 
over  which  the  body,  as  well  as  the  imagination, 

beams  of  the  sun  appeared  to  me  to  have  . .,.S)  ,„•  perhaps  this 

might  be  owing  to  the  cool  breezes  which  continually  Km  the  air,  bringing 

their  wings  the  odors  of  millions  of  fl  mind  appe 

tion,  when   i  :  fted   up  bo  much 

higher  than  the  centre  of  the  valley.  There  was  to  me  something  like  the 
rabies  of  Bury  land,  in  pas  country  where  for  hand] 

I  saw  no  inhabitants  but  the  buffalo,  deer,  the  elk,  and  antelope:  I  have 
called  it  the  paradise  of  hunters,  for  to  them  it  is  Indeed  a  paradise.  There 
are,  however,  some  important  drawbacks  oil  th.-  advantages  ofthis  country 
even  considered  as  a  pastoral  district.  To  the  north  of  the  Missouri,  rains 
are  extremely  rare,  but  when  they  are  set  in,  pour  down  in  torrents  while 
to  the  south  their  place  is  chiefly  supplie  I  In  the  dry 

season,  which  is  from  the  month  of  Joj  ,  September 

at  a  distance  from  the  great  riv< 
The   buffalo  at  this  time  leaves  the  plain 

Indians  in    their   excursions   to  any  conside  ,.;  ,,, 

shape  their  courses  by  Some  known  pond,  and  to  es  a  quantity 

iter  in  bladders.  It  is  possible,  that  wells  might  be  sunk,  but  it  is  cer- 
tain, that  at  this  se  .,„,  n/ 
vote*;  one  may  frequently  pass  the  beds( 

i  in  the  sands,  bul  after  rains,  or  on  tl  ,  i  e  snows  ii 

ab'etorrehfc  lown  in  turbitl 

Rightful  floods. '  -pp.  ;:;,  ;.,. 

trad   of  country   north   of  the  Missouri   is 

ater  proporti  in  of  prairie.     It  has  a  waving 
surface,   varied    by   those  dividing   ridg  ms,   which   in    Kentucky 

prairies,  it  is  well  known,  are  caused  by  repi 
and  desolating  fires,  and  the  soil  is  extn 

"The   plains  of  Indiana  and  Illinois  have  been    mostly  , i„ced  by  the 

sarae,'  are  very  different  from   the  savannas  on  the  sea  board 

and  the  immense  plains  of  the  Upper  Missouri,     in  j  of  [ndiana 

I  have  been  assured  that  the  woods  in  places  nave  he,-,,  known  to  recede' 
and  in  others  to  increase,  within  the  recollection  of  the  old  inhabitants  In' 
moist  places,  the  woods  are  still  standing,  the  fire  meeting  there  with  obstruc- 


£g4  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

tion.  Trees,  if  planted  in  these  prairies,  would  doubtless  grow.  In  the 
islands,  preserved  by  accidental  causes,  the  progress  of  the  fire  can  be  traced ; 
the  first  burning  would  only  scorch  the  outer  bark  of  the  tree ;  this  would 
render  it  more  susceptible  to  the  nest,  and  the  third  would  completely  kill. 
I  have  seen  in  places,  at  present  completely  prairie,  pieces  of  burnt  trees, 
proving  that  the  prairie  had  been  caused  by  fire.  The  grass  is  usually  very 
luxuriant,  which  is  not  the  case  in  the  plains  of  the  Missouri.  There  may 
doubtless  be  spots  where  the  proportion  of  salts,  or  other  bodies,  may  be 
such,  as  to  favor  the  growth  of  grass  only. 

"  Such  woods  as  remain  are  fine,  but  the  quantity  of  adjoining  prairie  is 
usually  too  great.  There  are  large  tracts,  however,  admirably  suited  for 
settlements :  a  thousand  acres  or  more  of  wood  land,  surrounded  by  as 
much  of  prairie.  It  is  generally  well  watered  with  fine  streams,  and  also 
interspersed  with  lakes.  There  is  an  extensive  strip  of  land  along  this  side 
of  the  Missouri,  of  nearly  thirty  miles  in  width,  and  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  in  length,  altogether  woods,  and  of  excellent  soil.  An  old  gentle- 
man, who  has  seen  Kentucky  a  wilderness,  informed  me  that  the  appear- 
ance of  this  tract  is  similar,  with  the  exception  of  its  not  being  covered  with 
cane,  and  a  forest  so  dark  and  heavy.  The  "Forks  of  the  Missouri" 
^such  is  the  name  given  to  the  northern  angle  formed  by  the  two  great 
rivers)  daily  increases  in  reputation,  and  is  settling  faster  than  any  part  of 
the  territory. 

"  The  Missouri  bottoms,  alternately  appearing  on  one  side  or  other  of 
the  river,  we  have  already  seen,  are  very  fine  for  three  hundred  miles  up, 
generally  covered  with  heavy  timber;  the  greatest  part  of  which  is  cotton 
wood  of  enormous  size.  The  bottoms  are  usually  about  two  miles  in 
width,  and  entirely  free  from  inundation.  The  bottoms  of  the  Mississippi 
are  equally  extensive  and  rich,  but  not  so  well  wooded.  They  are  in  fact 
a  continued  succession  of  the  most  beautiful  prairies  or  meadows.  The 
tract  called  Les  Mamelles,  from  the  circumstance  of  several  mounds, 
bearing  the  appearance  of  art,  projecting  from  the  bluff  some  distance  into 
the  plain,  may  be  worth  describing  as  a  specimen.  It  is  about  three  miles 
from  St.  Charles ;  I  visited  it  last  summer.  To  those  who  have  never  seen 
any  of  these  prairies,  it  is  very  difficult  to  convey  any  just  idea  of  them. 
Perhaps  the  comparison  to  the  smooth  green  sea  is  the  best.  Ascending 
the  mounds,  I  was  elevated  about  one  hundred  feet  above  the  plain ;  I  had  a 
view  of  an  immense  plain  below,  and  a  distant  prospect  of  hills.  Every 
sense  was  delighted,  and  every  faculty  awakened.  After  gazing  for  an 
hour,  I  still  continued  to  experience  an  unsatiated  delight,  in  contemplating 
the  rich  and  magnificent  scene.  To  the  right,  the  Missouri  is  concealed  by 
a  wood  of  no  great  width,  extending  to  the  Mississippi,  the  distance  of  ten 
miles.  Before  me,  I  could  mark  the  course  of  the  latter  river,  its  banks 
without  even  a  fringe  of  wood ;  on  the  other  side,  the  hills  of  the  Illinois, 
faced  with  limestone,  in  bold  masses  of  various  hues,  and  the  summits 
crowned  with  trees;  pursuing  these  hills  to  the  north,  we  see,  at  the  distance 
of  twenty  miles,  where  the  Illinois  separates  them,  in  his  course  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi. To  the  left,  we  behold  the  ocean  of  prairie,  with  islets  at  intervals. 
The  whole  extent  perfectly  level,  covered  with  long  waving  grass,  and  at 
every  moment  changing  color,  from  the  shadows  cast  by  the  passing  clouds. 
In  some  places  there  stands  a  solitary  tree  of  cotton  wood  or  walnut,  of 
enormous  size,  but  from  the  distance  diminished  to  a  shrub.  A  hundred 
thousand  acres  of  the  finest  land  are  under  the  eye  at  once,  and  yet,  on  all 
this  space,  there  is  but  one  little  cultivated  spot  to  be  seen." — pp.  204,206. 

" Nothing  else  was  visible — not  a  deer,  not  a  tree— all  was  prairie 

—a  wide  unbroken  sea  of  green— where  hollow  succeeded  hollow,  and  the 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX  265 

long  grass  waved  on  the  hills  with  a  heavy  surf-like  motion,  until  at  last-it 
ended  with  the  hazy  atmosphere,  which  met  the  horizon.  The  power 
of  sight  was  shut  out  by  nothing;  it  had  its  full  scope,  and  we  gazed  around 
until  our  eyes  ached  with  the  very  yastness  of  the  vfew  that  lay  before 
them.  There  waa  a  degree  of  pain,  of  loneliness,  in  the  scene.  A  tree 
would  have  been  a  companion,  a  friend.  It  would  have  taken  away  the 
very  desolation  which  hung  round  us,  and  would  have  thrown  an  air  of 
sociability  over  the  fare  of  nature;  but  there  were  none.  The  annual  fires 
which  sweep  over  the  whole  lace  of  the  country  during  the  autumn  of  every 
year,  effectually  destroy  every  thing  of  the  kind.  There  will  be  no  forest 
as  long  as  the  Indians  possess  these  regions;  for  every  year,  when  the 
season  of  hunting  arrives,  they  set  fire  to  the  long  dry  grass.  Once  fairly 
on  its  errand,  the  destructive  messenger  speeds  onward,  licking  up  every 
blade  and  every  hush ;  until  some  strip  of  timber,  whose  tall  trees  protect 
the  shrubbery,  by  the  dampness  which  they  diffuse  beneath,  or  some 
stream,  stops  it  in  its  desolating  path. 

"  The  object  of  burning  the  grass  is  to  drive  the  deer  and  elk  that  are 
roving  over  the  broad  extent  of  the  prairies,  into  the  small  groves  of  tim- 
ber scattered  over  the  surface.  Once  enclosed  within  these  thickets,  they 
fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  hunters." — Irvinir's  Indian  Sketches,  1835. 

The  next  extracts  are  from  an  article  in  Silliman's  Journal,  by  W.  W. 
Mc<  Juire,  on  the  prairies  of  Alabama. 

"  In  speaking  of  the  prairies,  the  rock  formation  claims  particular  atten- 
tion. It  is  uniformly  found  below  the  prairie  soil,  at  various  depths, 
ranging  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet,  and  it  sometimes  projects  above  the  ground. 
This  rock  is  generally  known  by  the  name  of  rotten  limestone;  when  re- 
moved for  several  feet  on  the  top,  and  exposed  to  the  action  of  the  atmo- 
sphere for  some  time,  it  assumes  a  beautiful  white  color.  In  its  soft  state  it 
is  easily  quarried,  and  blocks  of  almost  any  dimensions  can  be  procured. 
It  has  been  dressed  by  planes  and  other  instruments,  and  used  in  building 
chimneys,  some  of  which  have  stood  twelve  or  fifteen  years  without  injury 
or  decay.  A  summer's  seasoning  is  requisite  to  fit  it  for  building.  This 
rock  has  been  penetrated  by  boring  to  depths  varying  from  one  hundred  to 
five  hundred  and  fifty  feet;  after  the  first  six  or  seven  feet,  it  is  of  a  bluish 
or  gray  color,  but  still  soft  except  in  a  few  instances,  where  flint  strata  of  a 
foot  thick  or  more  have  been  met  with.  On  perforating  the  rock,  a  full 
supply  of  good  water  is  always  obtained,  which  uniformly  flows  over  the 
top.  I  have  heard  of  no  constant  running  stream  of  water  over  this  rock, 
except  one  in  Pickens  county,  near  the  lower  line.  The  superincumbent 
earth  is  for  a  few  feet  composed  principally  of  stiff  clay,  of  whitish  color; 
then  comes  the  mould  of  soil,  which  is  very  black— in  wet  weather  it  is 
extremely  miry  and  stiff,  and  in  dry,  very  hard  and  compact. 

"Shells,  such  as  the  oyster,  muscle,  periwinkle,  and  some  other  kinds,  are 
found  in  great  quantities  throughout  almost  all  the  prairies  nf  Alabama  and 
Mississippi ;  the  first  named  being  the  most  numerous,  mixed  in  every  pro- 
portion with  the  others.  The  oyster  shells  are  perfectly  similar  to  those 
now  obtained  from  the  oyster  banks  on  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic.  The 
largest  beds  of  shells  in  the  open  prairies  seem  to  occupy  rather  elevated, 
but  not  the  highest  places.  They  have  probably  been  removed  from  the 
more  elevated  situations  by  torrents  of  rain.  It  may  be  that  the  lowest 
places  never  contained  any  shells;  or  if  they  did,  as  vegetable  matter  ac- 
cumulates in  greater  quantities  in  low  situations,  they  may  have  been  thus 
covered.  In  some  instances  I  believe  they  have  been  found  in  such  places, 
several  feet  below  the  surface.  They  are  not  found  in  very  large  quanti- 
ties in  the  timbered  prairies ;  and  indeed,  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  where- 


266  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

ever  the  shells  are  numerous,  vegetation  is  not  so  luxuriant  as  where  there 
is  a  proper  admixture  of  the  decomposed  or  decomposing  shells  and  vege- 
table matter. 

••  These  shells  and  other  decomposing  materials  appear  to  have  given  a 
peculiar  character  to  the  prairie  soil,  which  causes  it  to  adhere  so  strongly 
to  the  legs  of  horses  and  to  the  wheels  of  carriages  as  to  remain  several 
days  in  travelling,  unless  washed  or  beaten  off.  Yet,  when  well  broken  up. 
at  the  proper  season,  and  regularly  ploughed,  it  remains  quite  mellow, 
producing  corn  and  cotton  equal  to  the  best  alluvial  bottoms,  with,  so  far  as 
it  has  been  tried,  increased  fertility ;  although,  from  the  compact  nature  of 
the  rock  beneath,  and  the  tenacity  with  which  it  retains  moisture,  crops  are 
injured  sometimes  by  rains,  but  seldom  by  drought. 

"  There  being  no  opening  or  fissures,  except  above  the  rock,  by  which  to 
convey  the  water  directly  to  the  channel  of  creeks  and  rivers,  there  are 
consequently  no  reservoirs  to  contain  supplies  for  fountains  and  springs.  In 
the  winter  and  spring  seasons  the  streams  overflow  and  the  land  is  literally 
submerged.  In  the  summer  and  autumn  neither  springs  nor  wells  are  to  be 
found,  except  below  the  rock  ;  yet,  notwithstanding  this  scarcity  of  water, 
there  is  seldom  a  lack  of  moisture  for  the  purpose  of  vegetation.  And  at 
times  when  the  drought  is  such  as  to  produce  fissures  two  or  three  inches 
wide,  and  as  many  feet  deep,  the  earth  will  be  found  quite  moist  at  the  depth 
of  tiro  or  three  inches. 

"  There  are  open  prairies  of  every  size,  from  one  hundred  to  one  thousand 
or  twelve  hundred  acres,  mixed  and  interspersed  in  every  form  and  mode 
with  timbered  land  of  all  kinds ;  some  producing  only  black-jack  and  post 
oak,  not  exceeding  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  in  height;  others  again  covered 
with  the  most  majestic  oak,  poplar,  elm,  hickory,  walnut,  pacaun,  hackberry, 
grape-vine  and  cane,  equal  in  size  and  beauty,  I  understand,  to  similar  kinds 
in  the  Mississippi  alluvions. 

"  The  extent  of  this  country  may  not  be  unimportant.  I  am  informed 
that  traces  of  prairie  soil  may  be  seen  in  Georgia,  perhaps  as  far  east  as  Mil- 
ledgeville.  It  is  indeed  said  to  exist  in  North  Carolina;  but  of  this  I  have 
not  evidence  such  as  to  warrant  the  assertion.  That  it  stretches  nearly 
five  hundred  miles  eastward  from  the  vicinity  of  the  Mississippi  on  the  west 
almost  to  Milledgeville,  there  is  no  doubt  ;  and  if  it  extends,  as  is  said  to  be 
the  fact,  to  North  Carolina,  it  reaches  four  hundred  or  five  hundred  miles 
farther,  being  perhaps  nine  hundred  or  one  thousand  miles  long,  and  from 
forty  to  sixty  in  breadth." 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  extracts,  several  communications  to  the 
Farmers'  Register,  (which  are  before  its  readers.)  confirm  these  statements, 
and  (independent  of  the  aid  of  chemical  analysis,  which  will  be  referred  to 
hereafter,)  show  that  the  prairie  soils  of  Alabama  generally  are  intermixed 
with  calcareous  earth,  and  universally  underlaid  with  that  substance  in  a 
much  more  pure  form,  yet  soft  enough  to  be  penetrated  by  roots.*  'i  he 
letter  of  N.  D.  Smith,  Esq.,  in  the  last  number  gives  a  like  account  of  the  under- 
lying stratum  of  the  prairies  of  Arkansas.  Such  is  also  the  account  of  Mr. 
Featherstonhaugh  in  his  geological  report  of  that  region— and  in  addition  to 
the  calcareous  character  of  the  underlying  soft  rock,  he  speaks  (though  not 
in  very  definite  terms)  of  the  black  rich  soil  above,  as  being  substantially 
calcareous."!  Another  similar  fact  in  a  remote  locality,  has  recently  been 
published.     A  tract  of  prairie  land  in  the  northwest  part  of  Pennsylvania, 

*  See  Farm.  Reg.  pp.  276,277.  367,  of  vol.  i.— and  pp.  G37,  716,  717,  vol.  ii,  and 
p.  140.  Essay  on  Calcareoous  Manures. 

t  See  extract  from  the  report  at  page  147,  vol.  iii.  Farm.  Reg. 


CALCAREOOS  MAMRK.s- APPENDIX.  267 

lies  on  calcareous  earth,  so  pure  as  to  he  converted,  by  being  burnt,  to 
lime  of  the  best  quality.  This  earth  reaches  to  within  a  foot  of  the 
surface.* 

The  next  extracts  present  sufficient  ground  for  considering  the  steppes 
and  prairies  as  belonging  to  the  same  class. 

"  In  all  parts  of  the  river  [Don]  above  Kasankaia,  it  seems  to  flow  over  " 
bed  of  chalk :  audits  banks,  gently  swelling  upwards  from  the  water,  rise 
like  the  South  Downs  of  Sussex  ;  often  disclosing  the  chalk,  of  which  they 
consist.  Farther  down,  and  near  the  water's  edge,  low  copses  of  wood  al- 
most always  accompany  its  course  ;  but  they  diminish  as  it  draws  nearer 
to  Tscherchaskoy,  the  inhabitants  ol  which  town  derive  all  their  wood  from 
the  Volga. 

"  As  soon  as  we  left  Kasankaia,  we  entered  the  steppes  in  good  earnest, 
with  a  view  to  traverse  their  whole  extent  to  Tscherchaskoy.  These  are 
not  cultivated  ;  yet,  bleak  and  desolate  as  their  appearance  during  winter 
must  be,  they  have  in  summer  the  aspect  of  a  wild  continued  meadow. 
The  herbage  rises  as  high  as  the  knee,  full  of  (lowers,  ami  exhibiting  a  most 
interesting  collection  of  plants  No  one  collects  or  cuts  this  herbage.  The 
soil,  though  neglected,  is  very  fine.  We  passed  some  oaks  in  the  first  part 
of  our  journey,  which  had  the  largest  leaves  I  ever  saw." — Clark's  Travel* 
in  Russia,  p.  189. 

"  Leaving  this  encampment,  we  continued  traversing  the  steppes  in  a 
south-westerly  direction,  and  passed  a  very  neat  village  belonging  to  a  rich 
Greek,  who,  to  our  great  surprise,  had  established  a  residence  in  the  midst  of 
these  desolate  plains.  As  we  advanced,  we  perceived  that  wherever  rivers 
intersect  the  steppes,  there  are  villages,  and  plenty  of  inhabitants.  A  manu- 
script map  at  Tscherchaskoy  confirmed  the  truth  of  this  observation.  No 
maps  have  been  hitherto  published  in  Europe  which  give  an  accurate  notion 
of  the  country.  A  stranger  crossing  the  Cossack  territory,  might  suppose 
himself  in  a  desert,  and  yet  be  in  the  midst  of  villages.  The  road,  it  is  true, 
does  not  often  disclose  them  ;  but  frequently,  when  we  were  crossing  a 
river,  and  believed  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  the  most  uninhabited  country, 
which  might  be  compared  to  a  boundless  meadow,  we  beheld  villages  to  the 
right  and  left  of  us,  concealed,  by  the  depth  of  the  banks  of  the  river, 
below  the  level  of  the  plain ;  not  a  single  house  or  church  of  which 
would  have  been  otherwise  discerned." —  p.   198. 

"  From  Acenovkaia,  we  continued  our  route  over  steppes  apparently  des- 
titute of  any  habitation.  Dromedaries  were  feeding,  as  if  sole  tenants  of 
these  wide  pastures."— p.  199. 

Dr.  Clarke,  though  traversing  a  vast  extent  of  steppes,  says  very  little 
more  of  them  than  is  presented  in  the  short  quotations  above.  They  give 
a  clear  though  indirect  indication  of  their  chalky  formation,  and  similarity 
to  the  downs  of  Sussex  in  England.  Yet  the  author  seems  to  have  attached 
no  importance  to  these  facts,  nor  does  he  take  any  other  notice,  direct  or 
indirect,  of  the  nature,  or  chemical  composition  of  the  soil.  Yet,  in  addi- 
tion to  his  scientific  attainments  as  a  chemist  and  mineralogist,  his  botanical 
knowledge,  if  properly  applied,  would  have  thrown  much  light  on  this  sub- 
ject I  have  no  doubt  but  hereafter  the  character  of  soils,  as  to  possessing 
calcareous  matter  abundantly,  or  being  destitute  of  that  ingredient,  will  be 
determined  with  certainly  by  the  presence  or  absence  of  many  different 
plants.  Dr.  Clarke  gives  a  catalogue  of  many  of  the  plants  observed  in 
his  journey,  and  of  them  a  few  are  stated  to  have  been  found  on  the  steppes. 

"  See  Farmers'  Regitter,  page  169,  vol    iii. 


268  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX. 

These  are  copied  below,*  that  others  who  have  some  knowledge  of  botany, 
may  be  able  to  state  whether  these  plants  are  confined  to  calcareous  soils  or 
not.  If  the  author  had  stated  that  sheep  sorrel  was  a  common  growth  of 
the  steppes,  I  would  at  once  admit,  from  that  solitary  fact,  that  the  soil  must 
be  destitute  of  calcareous  earth.  In  like  manner,  if  the  soil  is  highly  calca- 
reous, some  of  the  plants  which  he  observed  there,  or  which  may  be  found 
on  the  prairies,  would  afford  as  certain  proof  of  that  fact,  as  the  presence  of 
sorrel  would  of  the  reverse.  These  suggestions  are  thrown  out  for  the 
consideration  of  investigators  who  have  the  knowledge  and  opportunities 
requisite  to  put  them  to  use.  It  is  a  new  field  for  botanists,  which  promises 
a  sure  and  valuable  harvest. 

The  next  extracts,  which  are  from  Tooke's  View  of  the  Russian  Empire, 
will  give  more  full  information  of  the  steppes. 

"Arable  land.—  Under  this  head  we  must  reckon  various  tracts  of  land, 
especially,  1.  Those  that  are  kept  in  constant  cultivation  and  tillage,  such 
as  are  every  where  seen  in  Great  and  Little"  Russia,  in  the  provinces  bor- 
dering on  the  Baltic,  and  many  others.  2.  Such  as  are  only  used  at  times, 
and  left  quiet  for  a  great  length  of  time.  In  some  regions,  for  instance,  in 
Little  Russia,  about  the  Don,j  &c  where  they  are  looked  upon  as  steppes, 
which  if  merely  ploughed  and  then  sown,  would  be  productive  ;  in  others, 
for  example,  in  Livonia,  Esthonia,  and  Ingria,  where  they  are  rendered 
fertile  by  fire,  and  are  called  by  the  countrymen  bush-lands.f  On  such  par- 
cels of  ground,  which  are  either  allotted  into  particular  possessions,  or  with- 
out a  proper  owner,  villages  might  be  gradually  erected.  In  uninhabited 
districts  these  tracts  are  most  frequent.  3.  Those  that  are  proper  for  agri- 
culture, but  lie  totally  unemployed  :  they- wait  only  for  industrious  hands. 
There  are  still  plenty  of  these  vast  tracts  where  millions  of  men  might  find 
work  and  profit,  especially  in  fruitful  steppes,  and  in  numberless  large  forests. 

"  The  fertility  of  all  these  tracts  is  very  different  according  to  the  quality 
of  the  soil.  In  Livonia  and  Esthonia,  from  good  fields  they  reap  8.  and  in 
successful  years  from  JO  to  12  fold  ;  from  indifferent  ground  about  only  3, 
but  from  better,  at  times  1(5  or  even  more  than  20  fold.  The  harvests  about 
the  Don  are  commonly  10  fold ;  but  towards  Tomsk  on  the  Tshumush,  and 
in  the  whole  region  between  the  Oby  and  the  Tom,  many  fields  afford  an 
increase  of  25  to  30  fold, 5  and  at  Krasnoyarsk  the  failure  of  a  crop  was 
never  heard  of;  of  winter  corn  they  reap  8,  of  barley  12,  and  of  oats  20 
fold.  || 

"  In  Little  Russia,  on  the  Don,  and  in  many  other  places,  the  fields  are 
never  manured,  only  ploughed  once,  just  to  turn  up  the  earth,  afterwards  har- 
rowed, and  then  sown  :  more  culture,  especially  dunging,  would  push  the 

•  "  Centaurea  fri°ida,  northern  knap  weed — on  the  steppes  "  "  Centaurea  radiala, 
rayed  knap  weed — on  the  steppes  near  Koslof.  The  sheep  feed  on  it  in  winter,  and  it  is 
supposed  to  give  them  that  gray  wool  so  much  valued  by  the  Tartars."  "  Crocus  sativus, 
autumnal  meadow-saffron — steppes  near  Achmetchet."  "  Geranium  sylraticum,  wood 
crane's  bill — steppes."  "  Silene  guadrifida,  four-cleft  catch-fly — steppes,  near  Perecop," 
"  Sisymbrium  Locselii,  Loesel's  hedge-mustard — steppes  near  Perecop."  Slatice  trigona, 
three-sided  lavender — in  the  steppes,  very  frequent."  "  Vcscia  pannonica,  Pannonian 
vetch — steppes.  "  Slipa  Pennaia — in  all  the  steppes."  Many  other  plants  are  named 
in  different  parts  of  the  work,  as  found  in  the  region  of  steppes,  but  it  is  not  certain  that 
they  were  always  from  such  soil,  and  therefore  are  not  added  to  this  list. 

t  The  Don  Kozak  takes,  in  whatever  part  of  the  steppe  he  chooses,  a  piece  fit  for 
cultivation,  and,  bestows  his  labor  upon  it  as  long  as  he  thinks  proper  or  as  long  as  its 
visible  fertility  will  amply  reward  his  labor. 

X  See  Hupel  Liefl.  and  Esthl.  vol.  ii. 

§  Pallas,  vol.  ii  p.  650  et  seq. 

||  Ibid.  vol.  Hi.  p.  6. 


CALCAREOUS  MAM  RES    APPENDIX 

corn  up  ton  luxuriantly  or  parch  it,  and  so  hurl  the  harvest,  as  the  soil  is 
sufficiently  fertile  of  itself  Of  equal  goodness  is  the  ground  In  great  part 
of  Siberia  ,  for  example,  on  the  Samara,  on  the  I  mntry  of  the 

Bashkirs,  here  and.  therein  the  Baraba\orthe  Barabinian  stepp 
Kama,  whence  a  great  quantity  ofcorn  is  sent  t<>  the  northern  cornless 
dwelling-places  on   the   Dvina   and    Petshora.     In  like  manner  too 

in itMi t  of  Isetsk  the  isists  of  a    black  earth,   I 

depth  of  an  ell,  consequently  is  proper  for  tillage,  for  meadow-land,  and  gar- 
den ground.  On  the  Oby  near  Barnaul;  the  black  earth  does  not  indeed  go 
very  deep,  but  lit c  marly  elm/'  thai  Hi  rtilizes  it  nt>  much  as  to 

make  it,  in  d   plentiful    harvests,  without    manurii 

twenty  years  successively,  f  At  Krasnoyarsk,  the  fields  will  bear  no  manure 
whatever,  and  yet  continue  fruitful  for  10  or  15  years,  if  only  suffered  to 
lie  fallow  every  third  year.)  When  the  fertility  ceases,  the  boor  takes  a  fresh 
from  the  steppe.  On  the  Selenga,  in  the  district  of  Selenghinsk,  the 
fields  an-  hilly,  and  yet  will  bear  no  manure,  as  it  is  found  on  repeated  trials 
to  spoil  the  corn.*", 

Speaking  of  the  meadow  land,  the  same  author  says— 

"Some  steppes  produce  the  i»-st  meadow-grass  for  provender,  and  yield 
seed  for  making  artificial  meadowB;  such  as  the  t  spared!  e,  the  alpine  body 
sarium,  clorer,  various  kinds  of  artemisia,  pulse, Star-flower  plants,"  and  fine 
grasses  that  will  bear  any  climate." 

There  was  i  to  believe  that  other  plants  mentioned  as  grow- 

ing on  these  lands,  as  clover,  vetches,  &c.  indicated  a  calcareous  soil ;  but 
here  is  one  mentioned,  which  alone  is  a  positive  and  sufficient  proof. 
Esparcettc,  which  is  stated  as  one  of  the  natural  grasses  of  some  of  the 
steppes,  is  the  French  name  of  sainfoin— ami  the  fact  of  its  growth,  alone, 
proves,  as  well  as  any  chemical  analysis  could,  that  all  the  soils  bearing  it 
arc  highly  calcareous.  Sainfoin  not  only  delights  in  calcareous  soils,  but  it 
will  scarcely  live,  an  1  cann  it  thrive,  on  any  other.  It  is  a  valuable  grass 
on  chalk  soils  in  England,  which  would  be  almost  barren  under  grain 
tillage;  and  it  has  never  been  raised  in  Virginia,  and  indeed  will  scarcely 
produce  a  few  feeble  and  scattering  stalks  on  our  best  lands.  The  bald  and 
least  productive  prairies  of  our  western  country  would  be  the  proper  place 
for  this  grass. 

meadows  may  be  reduced  to  these  four  kinds:  1.  Fine  produc- 
tive meads  that  have  a  a  <•  1  black,  but  somewhat  moist  soil:  these  yield  the 
greatest  crops,  of  hay ;  to  them  belong  the  luchtcn  [overflowed  land. J  2. 
Dry,  whereof  the  soil  Is  lit  for  agriculture,  and  at  times  is  so  employed  ; 
they  commonly  yield  a  short  but  very  nutritious  hay.  3.  Watery  and 
marshy;  these  do  not  produce  the  best,  but  gi\e  a  very  serviceable  hay  in 
cases  of  scarcity  in  parching  summers  and  dry  places.  4.  Fat  steppes, 
where  the  grass  in  some  parts  grows  to  the  height  of  a  man:  they  are  sel- 
dom mown." 

"  Steppes. — This  term  does  not  properly  denote  low  and  watery  places,  or 
morasses,  but  dry,  elevated,  extensive,  and  for  the  most  part  uninhabited 
plains.  Some  of  them  being  destitute  of  wood  and  water,  are  therefore 
uninhabitable ;  others  have  shrubs  growing  on  them,  and  are  watered  by 
streams,  at  least  have  springs  or  wells,  though  they  are  void  of  inhai 

•  A  darkojray  eartb,   about  a  foot  tvhirh   runs  a  I«jt  of  etay,  -i 

held  in  manv  places  to  be  fine  arablt 
t  Pallas,  vol    ii.  p.  oil. 

•  j  Ibid.  vol.  iii.  p.  6.    . 
<)  Ibid,  r     169. 
t    Ibid.   vol.  ii.  p.  76. 


270  CALCAREOUS  MAMJRES— APPENDIX 

yet  in  these,  nomadic  people  wander  about  with  their  herds  and  Hocks,  and 
thus  make  them,  if  not  (heir  constant,  yet  their  summer  residence,  in 
many  of  them  are  seen  villages.  Some  occupy  a  very  large  space:  thus  it 
is  calculated  that  the  steppe  between  Samara  and  the  town  of  Uralsk' 
amounts  in  length  to  upwards  of  700  versts  ;  but,  as  every  twenty  or  tiiirty 
versts  we  come  to  a  lake  or  river,  the  Ural  Kozaks  traverse  them  when  they 
fetch  their  meal  from  Samara.  Probably  hereafter  several  of  these  steppes, 
at  least  in  some  places,  will  be  cultivated,  if  they  wish  to  raise  forests  upon 
them. 

"In  regard  to  the  soil  an  extreme  variety  prevails,  either  being  very  fruit- 
ful and  proper  for  agriculture  or  for  meadow-land,  or  indiscriminately  for 
both.  Accordingly  in  the  steppe  about  the  Don,  the  Kozaks  of  those  pails 
employ  themselves  in  agriculture,  as  well  as  in  the  breeding  of  cattle. 
Some  of  them  furnish  excellent  pasture  by  their  fine  herbage,  as  the  south- 
ern tract  of  the  Isetskoi  province,  and  the  steppe  of  the  middle  horde  of  the 
Kirghistzi.f  Or  the  soil  is  unfruitful :  whether  it  be  the  sand,  the  salt,  or  the 
stone  it  contains  that  is  the  cause  of  it.  Among  these  are  to  be  reckoned 
the  sandy  steppe  on  the  Irtish  near  Omsk;  in  general, we  find  about  the 
mountains  up  the  Irtish  pure  arid  steppes,  and  therefore  no  villages.  Also 
the  Krasno-ulimskoi,  between  the  rivers  Belaia,  Kama,  and  Tchussovaia, 
towards  the  Ural-chain,  is  mostly  sandy ;  and  that  on  the  Argoun  towards 
the  borders  of  China,  is  of  a  still  worse  soil,  consisting  of  rocky  particles 
and  flint.  The  whole  of  the  steppe  along  the  river  Knshum,  towards  the 
town  of  Uralsk,  is  described  by  Prof.  Pallas^  as  dry,  poor,  saline,  and  unfit 
for  any  kind  of  agriculture,  for  the  breed  of  cattle,  and  even  for  permanent 
inhabitants;  there  is  not  even  a  solitary  shrub  to  be  seen,  much  less  any 
wood.  In  general  saline  spots  are  not  unfrequent  in  the  steppes  ;  and  here 
and  there  we  also  meet  with  salt-lakes:  however,  such  districts  may  invite 
to  camel-pasture."— pp.  81,  83. 

"  The  steppes  axe  frequently  fired  either  by  the  negligence  of  travellers, 
or  on  purpose  by  the  herdsmen,  in  order  to  forward  the  crops  of  grass  ;  or, 
it  may  be,  out  of  malice,  as  some  years  since  the  Kozaks  of  the  Yaik  did  ; 
when,  having  risen  in  rebellion,  a  small  corps  of  Russian  troops  advancing 
against  them,  they  saw  themselves  all  at  once  almost  entirely  surrounded  by 
the  high  grass  on  fire.  Such  a  catastrophe  often  occasions  great  mischief; 
the  flames  spread  themselves  far  and  wide,  put  the  dwellings  of  the  inhabi- 
tants in  imminent  danger,  consume  the  corn  on  the  ground,  and  even  seize 
on  the  forests.  Many  prohibitions  under  severe  penalties  have  accordingly 
been  issued  against  this  practice,  but  they  seldon  have  any  effect. \  All  the 
iteppesmay  be  considered  as  asort  of  common  land."— p.  84. 

"  The  steppe  of  the  Don  and  the  Volga  comprises  the  whole  space  be- 
tween the  Don,  the  Volga,  and  the  Kuban,  and  is  a  large,  very  arid  steppe, 
altogether  destitute  of  wood  and  water;  it  has  few  inhabitants,  and  contains 

several   salt-lakes   and   salt-plots." "  Within  the  confines  of  this  steppe 

lies  what  is  called  the  Kuman  steppe" "  this,  it  is  said,  has  all  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  dried-up  sea:  it  is  a  sandy,  part  clayey  salt  plain,  without  trees. 
Many  circumstances  render  it  probable  that  it  might  really  have  been  the 
sea  bottom,  as  the  flat  shores  of  the  Caspian  and  Azof  Seas,  the  shallowness 
of  their  coasts,  the  low  situation  of  the  steppe,  the  saline  lakes,  and  the  sea 
shells"  4-c. — Rees'  Cyclopaedia. 

Of  the  extensive  Kamyk  steppe,  it  is  said,  in  the  same  work,  that  "  the 
soil  consists  of  sand,  marl,  and  clay,  often  mixed  with  sea  shells." 

'  Formerly  Yaik. 
t  Pallas,  vol.  ii.  p.  75 
t  Travels,  vol.  iii.  p.  525. 
()  See  Pallas,  vol.  ii.  p   378 


CALCAKKUI  S  MAM  KES-- APPENDIX  27  1 

The  latter  passages  include  under  the  general  name  of  Bteppes,  sterile  de- 
serts of  altogether  a  different  character.    In  like  manner,  some  great  tracts 

of  naked  s  1 11 1  in  South  America  are  called  pampas— and  s f  what  are 

called  prairies,  west  of  the  Arkansas  territory,  are  of  somewhat  similar 
general  character  to  those  descri  ed  above.     These  are  mentioned  ii 
avoid  the  appearance  of  omitting  what  might  be  considered  n 
my  positions.     But  these  regions  are  altogetl  Crop}  the  land 

perly  called   prairies   or  steppes;  and   have    no   more  connexion    with  our 
I   than   if  they  hail   been   inure   properly  called  sandy,  stony,  or   salt 
deserts. 

"  Pampas,  a  province  in  South    America,  in  the  vice-royalty  of  Buenos 

-,  consists  of  vast  plains,  which  extend  from  the  sea  coast   on  the  east, 

to  that  great  chain  which  forms  the   beginning  of  the  Cordilleras  of  Colli, 

i  in  leagues  weal  from  the  city  oi  Buenos  Ayres.     Towards  the  south, 

100  leagues,  to  a  chain  proceeding  W.  N.  W.   frorn  the 

Atlantic.     The  northern  boundaries  are  not  distinctly  known,  but  the 

of  Pampas  is  chiefly  applied  to  the  territory  on  the  sfluth  of  Buenos  Ayres, 

.  ,i.  and  Mend'oz  t.     These  vast  plains,  like  the  steppes  of  !  ussia,  bav- 

nvely  any  elevation,  the  view,  as  at  sea,  is  terminated  by  the  horizon 

ii iiv  diversified   with   paths  and  ditches,  which  collect  the   rain 

Watei  s,  an  I  which  commonly  end  in  lakes,  as  there  is  no  declivity  ;  ye i 
are  wide  tracts  in  which  or  is  that  element  pur  <  ;  and  the 

trees  arc  extremely  rare,  except  a  few  shrubs  round  the  lakes.  Hence  this 
region  is  only  inhabited  by  a  few  wandering  savages.  The  soil  is  generally 
ii  black  earth  of  little  depth,  and  is  followed  by  </  kind  of  coarse  chalk,  so  that 
it  is  difficult  to  form  wells,  as  the  water  can  scarcelypass  ■  a  sub- 

stance. The  chief  pi-.iui.eje  is  clover,  and  in  the  be8l  parts',  sometimes  so 
strong  as  to  resist  the  .step  of  a  horse  :  it  is  much  liked  by  the  cattle,  which, 
when   there   is  water,   multiply  prodigiously  in   the  pampas."—  Bees'  Cypl 

••  i  In  |e  ivujg  Buenos  Ayres.  the  fit  -'  ei  ed  for  180  miles  with 

icona  region        i  producesMong  grass,  with- 

out a  weed  t  and  the  third,  'reaching  to  the  base  of  the  <  'ordilleras,  is  a 
of  low  trees  and  shrubs,  in  which  such  beautiful  order  is  i  it  one 

i Hop  between  them  in  every  direction." "  The  climate  of  the 

pis  is  subject  to   great  ure,   though  the  gradual 

changes  are  very  regular!  The  winter  is  as  cold  as  an  English  November. 
The  summer    is   oppressively  hot.      But  tli 

sphere  as  beautiful  </..■'/  salubric  >st  healthy  pat  c  and 

Italy,  without  their  malaria." — Malt,  BrutCs  G'eog-. 

■■  r  ie  whole  plain    nearest  |  to  the  fool  of  the  I  prdilleraj  is  a  loose  sandy 
[ready  impregnated  with  saline  matter,  which  is  inimical  to  vegetation 
in  the  natural   way.     Tins  Immense   tracl   is  called  the  Traversia,  or  the 
Desert,  resembling  similar  tracts  in  Africa.     When  assist  tion,it 

is  tli,  '.'  1 1  note.) 

Am.    Ed. 

A  late  traveller  from  Buenos  Ayres  to  the  Andes,  Temple,  speaks  thus  of 
the  first  and  second  regions  of  pan 

•'The  country  for   leagues  round  is  covered  with  thistles,  which   at  this 

season  are  to  be  seen  growing  to  the  prodigious  height  of  eight,  and,  in  some 

'in   amongst  them  i  ide  from  the 

sun,  and  to  i-  ith,  are  completely  i  These 

i*  form  almost  the  only  fuel  for  the  lew  inhabitants  who  are  scattered 

in    periods  of  the  year,  when 


272  CALCAREOUS   MANURES— APPENDIX. 

over  this  vast  wilderness :  not  a  tree  is  to  be  seen,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  peach  trees,  which  have  been  planted  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
the  huts.-'  ******** 

"  We  now  bade  adieu  to  the  region  of  thistles,  through  which  we  travelled 
for  upwards  of  one  hundred  miles,  and  which,  on  each  side  of  the  road,  ex- 
ton. led  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  At  this  season  of  the  year,  in  conse- 
quence of  these  gigantic  weeds  being  parched  by  the  sun,  the  country,  at 
a  distance,  had  the  appearance  of  being  covered  with  ripe  corn;  but  the 
scene  was  too  monotonous  to  afford  any  agreeable  impression.  Madame 
de  Stael,  on  her  journey  into  Paissia,  remarks,  [of  the  steppes,]  '•  there  is  so 
much  spare  that  every  thing  is  lost—"  "nseme  les  chateaux,  meme  la  popula- 
tion. On  diroit  qu'on  traverse  un  pays  dont  la  nation  rient  de  s'en  aller." 
Here,  on  the  contrary,  the  traveller  would  say  that  he  traverses  a  country 
where  the  nation  is  yet  to  come  ;  for  every  thing  exists  as  nature  first  formed 
it.  unimproved,  uncultivated,  untouched."  *  *  *  * 

"  After  leaving  the  region  of  thistles  before  mentioned,  we  travelled  for 
about  120  miles  through  a  country  of  more  agreeable  aspect,  though  not  a 
tree  as  vet  appeared  to  our  view,  the  whole  being  one  vast  field  of  rich 
pasture.  This  is  the  true  pampa  of  South  America  of  which  we  have  of 
late  vears  read  and  heard  so  much  in  Europe."       *  *  *  * 

"Innumerable  herds  of  cattle,  the  progeny,  it  is  said,  of  six  cows  and  a 
bull  imported  rather  more  than  two  centuries  ago  from  Spain,  range  at 
larsre  over  this  ever  verdant  surface  of  inexhaustible  luxuriance.  I  have 
been  credibly  informed  that  their  numbers  at  the  present  day  bear  no  pro- 
portion to  what  they  were  before  the  devastating  havoc  of  the  late  civil 
war:  still  they  appear  to  a  European  eye  in  countless  multitudes,  and  leave 
the  traveller  no  longer  cause  to  wonder  that  such  fine  animals  should,  at 
one  time,  have  been  slaughtered  in  thousands,  merely  for  their  hides."  *  * 
"  This  noble  plain,  entirely  covered  with  pasture,  extends  many  hundred 
miles  into  the  regions  of  Patagonia,  where  it  is  yet  unexplored.  M.  Hum- 
boldt calculated  its  area  at  70,000  square  leagues.  'This  area,'  he  ob- 
serves. '  of  the  pampas  of  Tucuman,  Buenos  Ayres,  and  Patasronia,  (they 
are  all  united,')  is  consequently  four  times  as  large  as  the  area  of  all  France.' 
"No  lawn  was  ever  laid  down  with  greater  precision  by  the  hand  of 
man.  than  this  vast  interminable  plain  has  been  by  nature.  Not  a  stone  is 
to  be  seen  on  its  surface." —  Temple's  Travels. 

"  In  the  whole  of  this  immense  region,  there  is  not  a  weed  to  be  seen. 
The  coarse  crass  is  its  sole  produce,  and  in  the  summer,  when  it  is  high,  it 
is  beautiful  to  see  the  effect  which  the  wind  has  in  passing  over  this  wild 
expanse  of  waving  grass:  the  shades  between  the  brown  and  yellow  are 
beautiful.  The  scene  is  placid  beyond  description:  no  habitation  or  human 
beine  is  to  he  seen,  unless  occasionally  the  wild  and  picturesque  outline  of 
the  graucho  on  the  horizon,  his  scarlet  poncho  or  cloak  streaming  horizon- 
tally behind  him.  his  balls  flying  round  his  head,  and  as  he  bends  forward 
towards  his  prey,  his  horse  straining  every  nerve." — Head's  Rough 
Notes,  >S:o. 

Nature  of  prairie  soils,  so  far  as  ascertained  by  chemical  tests. 

After  I  had  ascertained  the  truth  of  the  novel  and  strange  fact  that 
•carcely  any  soils  in  Virginia,  or  of  the  other  Atlantic  states,  of  which  I  had 

impenetrable  barrier.  Mr.  Head  remarks  :  "  The  sudden  growth  of  these  plants  is  quite 
astonishin?  :  and  though  it  would  he  an  unusual  misfortune  in  military  history,  yet  it  it 
rea'lv  noe.ible.  that  an  invadine  nrmv.  unacquainted  with  this  countrv.  might  be  impri- 
soned bv  these  thistlo,  before  they  had  time  to  escape  from  them."— Htad't  Noitt. 


S  MANURES— APPENDIX 


273 


opportunity  to  examine  specimens,  contained  any  calcareous  matter  (car- 
bonate of  lime,1*)  it  became  a  new  subject  of  surprise  to  learn  from  articles 
which  have  been  published  in  the  Farmers'  .  .  .  vol.  i.) 

that  many  of  the  prairie  lands  of  Alabama  «  i  us  according 

>  observations  of  those  who  judged  merely  from  appearances.  Com- 
bining this  fart  with  my  own  personal  experience  that  old  cleared  lands,  even 
slightly  calcareous,  were  much  more  easily  kept  clear  of  young  bi 
than  naturally  poor  and  acid  soils-ami  with  what  1  had  ren 
kedness  of  chalk  downs  in  England- and  the  L-eneral  difficulty  of  rearing 
trees  in  calcareous  parts  of  Europe— all  served  p>  build  up  the  opinion 
which  I  now  aim  to  establish,  that  the  abundance  of  calcareous  earth  in 
prairie  soils  was  the  principal,  and  is  a  sufficient  cause  of  the  absence  of 
trees.  Still  there  had  never  been  an  analysis  made  of  any  such  soil,  to  my 
knowledge,  and  there  was  no  other  kind  of  evidence  (however  slisrht)  of 
such  quality  of  any  prairie  soils,  except  of  a  part  of  Alabama ;  and  reports 
of  the  constituent  parts  of  soils,  judged  solely  by  the  eye,  or  by  the  mere 
close  neighborhood  of  calcareous  rocks,  I  knew  from  experience,  deserved 
but  little  credit  or  respect.  In  1834,  I  first  obtained  some  such  proofs  from 
a  few  specimens  of  prairie  and  wood-land  soils  from  Marenao  county,  Ala- 
bama, and  one  from  Mississippi.  The  prairie  soils  were  all  calcareous, 
containing  from  B  to  59  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime;  and  these  were  the 
first  specimens  of  highly  calcareous  soils  that  I  had  ever  examined,  except 
from  shelly  spots  on  the  banks  of  our  tide- water  rivers.  The  wood-land 
soils,  like  our  lime-stone  and  other  rich  n<  atral  BOitef  contained  no  carbonate 
of  lime.  Since  then,  other  specimens  have  been  received  and  examined 
from  various  parts  of  Alabama  — and  also  the  reports  of  analyses  of  others, 
made  by  Pr.  Cooper  and  Dr.  Gibhes  of  South  '  larolina,  have  been  received, 
and  '■  ave  been  published  in  this  journal. t  Most  of  these  soils  are  highly 
calc  i  oiis,  /: ,/  also  ■tome  specimens  of  prairie  toils  contain  i«<t  a  particle  of 
car'*  at,' of  lime.  This  apparent  contradiction  will  be  considered  hereafter. 
It  is  proper  to  observe  here  that  I  do  not  extend  the  term  prairie  to  any 
land  hearinc  trees,  unless  of  new  growth,  or  land  known  to  have  formerly 
been  without  them.     Flu'  I  ness  of  this  term  is  much  impaired  by 

its  heimr  now  applied  in  Alabama  (and  perhaps  elsewhere)  to  soils  having 
the  same  peculiar  texture,  appearance,  and  sensible  qualities,  though  covered 
with  trees.  Thus  "wooded  prairies"  are  spoken  of  in  the  pieces  formerly 
published  in  this  journal,  and  referred  to  in  this  piece. 

In  addition  to  new  facts  of  the  same  kinds,  for  the  convenience  of  the 
reader,  an  abridged  statement  will  here  be  given  of  the  calcareous  ingre- 
dients of  all  the  prairie  soils  which  I  have  formerly  examined,  or  which 
have  been  analyzed  by  other  persons,  and  the  results  communicated  for 
publication  to  the  Farmers'  Register:  and  also  of  other  neighboring  soils, 
sometimes  improperly  called  "  prairie."  though  covered  with  growing  trees. 
It  is  proper  to  observe,  that  my  own  examinations  were  confined  to  lime  in 
one  form  of  combination  only — the  carbonate—  and  that  the  silicious,  alumi- 
nous, and  vegetable  ingredients,  when  mentioned,  were  judged  of  by  the 
senses,  and  not  by  accurate  chemical  tests.  My  own  trials  and  results  will 
be  siven  first. 

Specimens  of  soils  from  Marencro  county.  Alabama,  furnished  and  select- 
ed by  Richard  Coqke,  Esq.  (Described  more  fully  at  page  41  of  'Essay  on 
Calcareous  Manures.' 

•  E«3ay  on  (  nun ■-.  p  3  i 

♦  FN-  ■.- 

t  See  page*  US,  vol.  ii,  anil  272,  vol   ni   Farmers'  1 


9 


274  CALCAREOUS   MANURES— APPENDIX 

No.  1.  Prairie  soil  of  the  most  productive  kind  in  Alabama — a  black  clay 
with  scarcely  any  sand,  yet  so  far  from  being  stiff,  becomes  too  light  by  be 
ing  tilled.  Bears  luxuriant  crops  of  corn,  oats,  and  cotton— but  the  last 
after  a  few  years,  becomes  subject  to  rust.  Contained  8  per  cent,  of  car 
bonate  of  lime.  All  this  kind  of  soil  lies  on  a  substratum  of  "  rotten  lime 
stone,"  (specimens  of  which  contained  from  72  to  82  percent  of  carbonate 
of  lime)  and  which  rises  sometimes  to  the  surface,  forming  the  "  bald 
prairies." 

No.  2.  Bald  prairie  soil—"  comparatively  poor— neither  trees  nor  bushes 
grow  there,  and  only  grass  and  weeds  before  cultivation —  corn  does  not 
grow  well — small  grain  better— cotton  crops  soon  become  subject  to  rust." 
Contained  59  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime.  The  general  substratum  of 
rotten  limestone  in  texture  and  appearance,  as  well  as  in  chemical  charac- 
ter, approaches  the  chalk  of  Europe  more  nearly  than  any  other  earth  known 
in  the  United  States. 

No.  3.  Very  rich  cane  brake  land — a  kind  of  prairie  of  a  wetter  nature, 
from  the  winter  rains  not  running  off  freely,  and  the  tenacious  soil  not  per- 
mitting the  superfluous  water  to  sink  through — contained  16  percent. 

No.  4.  From  the  valley  cane  land— very  wet  through  winter,  but  always 
dry  in  summer;  after  being  ditched  dry  enough,  and  brings  fine  cotton, 
&c.     Contained  no  carbonate  of  lime. 

No.  5.  From  what  is  called  the  best  "  post  oak  land."  on  which  trees  of 
that  kind  stand  from  two  to  four  feet  in  diameter —  but  little  underwood,  and 
no  cane — nearly  as  rich  as  the  best  cane  land.     No  carbonate  of  lime. 

No.  6.  "  Palmetto  land,"  having  that  plant  as  well  as  a  heavy  and  luxuriant 
growth  of  large  trees.  A  cold  and  wet  soil  before  being  brought  into  tilth, 
but  afterwards  soft  and  easy  to  till,  and  produces  corn  and  cotton  finely. 
The  cane  on  it  generally  small.  Soil  from  4  to  10  feet  deep.  No  carbonate 
of  lime. 

Selected  by  Dr.  "W.  J.  Dupuy— 

No.  7.  Soil  from  the  Choctaw  Prairie  in  Mississippi,  an  extensive  body 
of  fertile  land.     Contained  13  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime. 

Selected  and  sent  by  Dr.  R.  Withers,  of  Greene  county,  Alabama- 
No.  8.  From  Kemper  county,  Miss.,  part  of  a  "  considerable  body  of 
similar  land,  extending  into  Neshobak  and  Winston  counties.  Chocolate  co- 
lored sandy  loam,  very  friable  and  easily  worked— produces  corn  and 
cotton  well— growth,  hickory,  black-jack  and  some  other  oaks,  principally 
red  oak,  interspersed  with  a  few  pines."  Contained  no  carbonate  of 
lime. 

No.  9.  "  Prairie  soil  from  near  Demopolis,  Alabama,  taken  from  the  road 
near  the  surface.  The  rock  here  is  within  a  few  inches  of  the  surface,  and 
many  small  fragments  are  mixed  with  the  soil.  It  is  a  dark  calcareous 
mould—  produces  corn  finely  ;  but  there  is  too  much  lime  for  cotton." 
Contained  60  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime. 

No.  10.  Subsoil  of  the  common  "  open  prairie"  of  Greene  county,  taken 
from  a  foot  or  more  below  the  surface.  "  The  soil  above  is  dark,  and  proba- 
bly less  calcareous.  The  rock  is  not  more  than  two  feet  below  the  surface 
Lime  was  perceptible  in  this  specimen  in  powder,  in  detached  masses,  be- 
fore being  pounded."     Contained  50  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime. 

No.  11.  "From  the  southern  part  of  Noxubee  county.  Miss.— taken 4 
inches  below  the  surface,  of  land  cultivated  two  years.  It  is  a  prairie  coun- 
try, but  different  from  ours  on  this  side  of  the  Tombeckbe,  in  having  the 
elevated  parts  of  it,  which  hardly  amount  to  hills,  covered  with  hickory 
trees,  interspersed  with  some  black-jacks.  Hence  it  is  often  called  a 
"  hickory  barren"  country.     Between  the  timbered  portions,  there  are  long 


&» 


cai  i  mix  275 

savannas,  or  open  prairies,  which  are  very  level   and  rich.     This  specimen 

lie  of  them.     It  is  covered  with  a  very  heavy  eras* 
very  much    resembling  U  iss:  and  some  of  it  iili.it 

species.  It  is  al  Brsl  very  difficult  to  eradicate;  but  when  this  is  once  < 
ed,  the  soil  Is  as  easily  ploughed  as  other  prairie  soils,  and  produces  corn 
very  finely  ;  say  from  50  i"  60  bushels  to  the  acre.  ( lotton  however  is  pre- 
disposed to  rust  at  first}  and  probably  will  be  more  so  after  the  undeconv 
posed  vegetable  mattei  existing  in  the  primitive  soil  hefiomes  exhausted.  Im- 
mediately on  ihe  outskirts  of  the  hickory  hammocks,  where  they  join  the 
open  prairie,  the  cotton  is  inucii  more  disposed  to  rust,  even  the  first  year, 
and  it  is  from  such  a  locality  that  it  was  selected." 

\.>.  12.  "This  soil  is  very  loose  and  friable,  and  it  is  generally  in  such  land 
that  I  have  observed  the  cotton  to  rust  most.  It  grows  off  at  first  more 
luxuriantly  than  in  other  plates,  but  as  the  heat  of  summer  comes  on,  begins 
to  look  scorched,  sheds  its  shapes,  then  the  bolls,  and  leaves,  until  nothing  is 
left  but  the  dead  stalks.  These  two  specimens,  Nos.  11  and  12,  do  not 
effervesce  perceptibly  with  diluted  sulphuric  acid,  but  1  presume  yon  will  find 
them  strongly  impregnated  with  lime.  There  is  a  considerable  tract  of 
country  of  this  Kind  of  soil  in  Mississippi,  and  the  lime-stone  rock  frequently 
shows  itself  near  the  surface.  Detached  masses  of  sand-stone  are  also  fre- 
quently seen  about  tiie  hill-sides  and  hickory  hammocks." 

Neither  of  the  last  two  \  oa  11.  12,)  contained  any  carbonate 

of  lime.  The  descriptions  have  been  emoted  at  length,  because  the  facts  are 
among  those  that  most  oppose  my  argument.  A  similar  deficiency  of  calca- 
reous earth  was  found  in  the  lour  next  specimens,  which  were  sent  byC'apt. 
John  Symington,  U.  S.  A.,  of  St.  Louis. 

No.  I  3.  From  a  small  prairie  in  the  neighborhood  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 
Fertile,  hut  not  equal  to  the  best  prairie  soils.  "This  is  high  and  rolling,  and 
consequently  dry— and  never  subject  to  inundation.  Specimen  taken  about 
4  inches  below  the  surface,  and  just  below  the  fibrous  grass  roots." 

■\i>.  II.  ■I'lnm  the  surface  of  a  ridge  of  rolling  prairie,  in  Macoupin 
county,  Illinois— high  and  dry,  and  never  subject  to  inundation." 

No.  Is  ••  From  Macoupin  county,  Illinois.  Also  higb  prairie,  and  never 
subject  to  inundation,  but  quite  level,  and  therefore  the  rain  water  does  not 
flow  off  rapidly  enough.  Still  il  cannot  be  called  a  wet  soil.  It  is  consi- 
dered rich,  and  produces  well  grain  of  all  kinds.  Taken  2  feet  below  the 
surface." 

No.  16.  Sent  by  George  Churchill,  Esq.  Sample  of  the  soil  of  the 
"Ridge  Prairie,"  Madison,  Illinois — "taken  from  4  inches  below  the  surface, 
where  it  has  never  been  ploughed,  and  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the 
nearest  wood-land.     Surface  dry  and  rolling." 

Neither  of  the  four  last  specimens  contained  a  particle  of  carbonate  of 
lime.  All  were  very  black  (therefore  supposed  full  of  vegetable  matter)  and 
contained  but  a  very  small  proportion  of  finely  divided  silicious  earth!  For 
any  practical  and  useful  purpose,  this  essential  ingredient  might  almost  be 
said  to  be  entirely  wanting. 

No.  17.  Prairie  soil  from  Madison  county,  Ohio — contained  no  carbo- 
nate of  lime. 

No.  18.  Prairie  soil  from  Pickaway  county,  Ohio,  contained  a  very 
small  portion  only  of  carbonate  of  lime.  The  amount  was  not  ascertained 
precisely. 

The  three  next,  selected  and  sent  by  Jas.  Deas,  Esq.,  were  all  taken  from 
different  depths  below  the  same  field  of  "  unwooded  prairie,"  in  Lowndes 
•ounty,  Alabama.     The  surface  soil  black. 

No    19      Taken  4$  feet  below  the  surface,  where  very  fertile — stiff  clay 


A* 


276  CALCAREOUS  MANURES—APPENDIX. 

of  dark  olive  color  when  dry,  and  pounded  for  trial— very  little  silicious 
earth,  and  that  very  finely  divided.  Contained  1 1  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of 
lime. 

No.  20.  "  At  1  J  feet  below  the  surface,  where  the  soil  is  rather  thin" 
[or  poor]— nearly  white— contained  S4  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime. 

No.  21.  At  3  feet  below  the  surface  of  another  place,  "a'so  rather  thin 
soil."     Color  darker  than  the  preceding.     Carbonate  of  lime,  2~  per  cent. 

No.  -2-2.  Of  the  celebrated  fertile  alluvial  soil  of  Red  River,  Arkansas,  a 
specimen  of  300  grains  contained  12  grains  of  earthy  carbonates,  of  which 
rather  more  than  one  third  was  found  to  be  carbonate  of  mag  teste*-*- the  re- 
mainder carbonate  of  lime.  So  far  a>  I  am  informed,  this  is  the  first  known 
fact  of  magnesia  being  found  in  a  notable  proportion  in  any  soil  in  this 
country.  It  is  hoped  that  this  peculiarity  of  the  Red  River  land  will  receive 
further  investigation.  The  presence  of  magnesia  was  indicated  by  the  very 
slow  effervescence  of  the  soil  in  acid.  The  separation  of  the  two  carbo- 
nates was  made  according  to  Davy's  method,  (directed  in  his  "  Agricultural 
Chemistry,")  which,  however,  is  not  very  accurate. 

The  results  of  analyses  of  prairie  soils  (and  some  which,  though  so  called, 
are  covered  with  trees,)  made  by  Drs.  Cooper,  Nott,  and  Gibbes,  will  now 
be  adduced.     See  the  more  full  report.  Farmers'  Register,  p.  716,  vol.  ii. 

No.  23.  Bald  prairie  on  Big  Swamp,  Lowndes,  Alabama.  Plantation  of 
Col.  James  Deas.     Carbonate  of  lime  25  per  cent. 

No.  24.  Slue  prairie— same  plantation—  15  per  cent. 

No.  25.  From  plantation  of  Messrs.  Elmore  and  Taylor,  on  Pintlala  creek, 
Montgomery,  Alabama— open  prairie  — taken  6  inches  below  the  surface. 
Carbonate  of  lime  38  per  cent. 

Xo.  96.  From  same  spot,  taken  IS  inches  below  the  surface.  Carbonate 
of  lime  48  per  cent. 

The  balance  were  very  late  examinations  of  Alabama  soils  made  by  Dr. 
R.  W.  Gibbes.  July  1835,  and  published  in  the  Farmers'  Register,  vol.  vi. 

No.  27.  slue  prairie,  (Col.  Elmore's  plantation)— 6  or  8  inches  below  the 
surface— Carbonate  of  lime  26  per  cent. 

No.  28.  Hammock  prairie,  carbonate  of  lime  22  per  cent. 

No.  29.  Open  prairie,  mahogany  col"  id,  no  limestone^  and  vegetable 
matter  as  much  as  38  per  cent. 

No.  30.  Hog-bed  prairie,  carbonate  of  lime  8. 

No.  31.  Post  oak  prairie,  jio  limestone,  and  vegetable  matter  3S  per  cent. 
[From  the  name,  it  is  presumed  that  this  is  such  wooded  land  as  No.  5,  and 
therefore  improperly  called  prairie  land.] 

No.  32.  Black  slue  prairie,  (Moulton  plantation  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Taylor.) 
Carbonate  of  lime  12  per  cent. 

No.  33.  Prairie,  (scattering  large  post  oak.)  mingled  with  red  clay.  Car- 
bonate of  lime  6  per  cent— and  vegetable  matter  32. 

No.  34.  Open  prairie— from  a  hill  or  ridge.  18  per  cent. 

No.  35.  White  open  prairie,  (Chisolm's)— from  near  surface— soil  not  more 
than  1 8  inches  deep.     Carbonate  of  lime  42  per  cent.     Vegetable  matt' 

Formation  of  prairies,  fyc.  accounted  for,  and  apparent  exceptions  to  the  rule 
explained. 

My  views  of  the  manner  in  which  prairies  are  formed  will  now  be  sub- 
mitted. 

There  are  some  few  trees,  as  wild  or  black  locust,  papaw,  and  hackber- 
ry,  which  thrive  best  on  soil  moderately  calcareous,  and  will  scarcely  live 
in  soils  very  deficient  in  lime.     But  most  forest  trees  prefer  soils  having  so 


CALCAREOUS  MANUBF.S-APPENDIX.  277 

little  lime,  as  to  be,  if  tint  naturally  poor,  at  least  unfriendly  to  the  growth 
of  grass.  Hence  such  lands  are  covered  naturally  by  an  unmixed  growth 
of  trees,  and  are  almost  destitute  of  grass.  Calcareous  soils  are,  on  the 
contrary,  favorable  to  the  growth  of  grass,  and  unfavorable  to  the  growth 
of  trees,  and  the  more  so  (other  circumstances  being  alike)  in  proportion  to 
the  excess  of  lime  in  the  soil.  Supposing  such  a  soil  to  have  been  so  pro- 
tected as  to  be  covered  with  trees,  the  first  passage  over  it  of  fire,  which 
would  be  harmless  to  the  more  hardy  growth  of  acid  soil,  would  here  serve 
to  scorch  and  damage  the  trees,  feeble  and  tender,  because  unnaturally 
placed.  This  effect  would  be  the  greater  because  such  calcareous  wood- 
land would  have  some  growth  of  rank  grass,  which,  as  dry  fuel,  would  add 
to  the  violence  of  the  fire,  and  to  its  efTect.  The  next  winter,  the  crippled  and 
stinted  condition  of  the  trees  would  prepare  them  to  be  still  more  damaged 
by  the  like  passage  of  fire,  and  its  violence  would  be  increased  by  the  greater 
quantity  of  dead  and  dry  wood,  and  the  increased  growth  of  grass  less  ob- 
structed now  by  shade.  Every  year  these  circumstances  would  serve  the 
more  to  augment  the  destructive  power  of  the  fires,  and  to  diminish  the 
power  of  resistance  in  the  still  living  trees.  In  the  course  of  time  all  the  trees 
would  be  killed,  and  burnt,  and  then  the  seeds  and  reots  after  springing  in 
vain  many  succeeding  summers,  would  finally  have  to  yield  to  destruction 
also.  The  surface  is  then  covered  with  the  growth  of  grass  most  suitable 
to  its  composition,  which  growth  is  luxuriant  according  to  the  fertility  of  the 
soil.  So  long  as  fires  sweep  every  year  over  such  land,  the  prairies  can 
never  be  covered  with  wood ;  and  on  the  contrary  will  be  extending  every 
year  so  long  as  there  is  wood  which  the  fires  can  destroy,  and  land  that 
will  yield  grass  to  furnish  the  fuel  for  still  more  extended  ravages. 

It  may  well  happen  also,  that  a  soil  not  at  all  calcareous,  if  bordering  on 
a  prairie,  would  be  so  exposed  to  the  power  of  fire,  when  driven  in  all  its 
violence  by  strong  winds,  that  its  trees  would  be  damaged,  and  finally 
killed,  and  the  land  brought  likewise  to  the  prairie  state.  Such  land,  however, 
would  be  making  continual  efforts  to  return  to  its  more  natural  state  of 
wood-land ;  and  whether  under  young  wood,  or  a  meager  cover  of  grass, 
would,  by  refusing  fuel,  serve  to  check  the  farther  extension  of  the  ravages 
of  fire. 

This  would  be  one  means  of  land  not  calcareous  being  brought  to  the 
prairie  state.  There  are  two  other  means  for  the  formation  or  extension  of 
prairies  on  Jand  not  calcareous,  both  of  which  are  probably  more  often 
operative.     These  will  now  be  considered. 

It  may  be  inferred  that  the  destruction  of  trees  on  calcareous  soils  is  not 
so  much  caused  by  their  absolute  unkindliness  to  trees,  as  by  their  far 
greater  suitableness  for  grass,  which  serves  when  dry  as  fuel  to  burn  the 
trees.  Now  if  any  thing  other  than  the  presence  of  calcareous  earth  will 
produce  an  equally  rank  growth  of  grass,  the  same  destructive  end  will  be 
produced,  and  as  completely  in  time,  though  perhaps  with  less  facility  and 
quickness.  Moisture  in  the  soil  will  in  this  manner  serve  as  well  as  calca- 
reous matter— and  if  the  surface  is  only  dry  enough  at  some  time  in  every 
year  to  permit  full  force  to  the  fire,  similar  effects  must  be  produced  in  de- 
stroying and  keeping  down  the  growth  of  trees.  In  this  manner  are  formed 
the  rich  alluvial  prairies  or  savannas  on  the  great  western  rivers,  which  are 
covered  by  floods  sometimes,  and  perfectly  dry  at  others. 

Again—  a  soil  may  be  free  from  floods,  and  from  all  water  except  from 
the  clouds,  and  yet  without  being  calcareous,  may  be  so  constituted  as  to 
attract  and  retain  moisture,  with  great  force,  and  thus  be  very  favorable  to 
the  growth  of  grass,  and  consequently  to  the  formation  of  prairies.  This 
constitution  is  produced  when  a  soil  is  formed  almost  entirely  of  fine  alu- 

35 


278 


CALCAREOUS   MANURES—  APPENDIX. 


minous,  or  argillaceous  earth,  and  decomposed  vegetable  matter—  and  this 
is  precisely  the  composition  of  even*  specimen  of  prairie  soil  which  I  have 
examined,  and  which  \V3:  .careous.  Examples  of  some  such  soils 

are  preseute -1  st     The  sol's  contained  very  little  silicious 

earth,  and  that  little  so  fine  as  only  to  be  made  sensible  to  trial  between  the 
teeth.  Tbe  ordinary  mode  of  separating  silicious  from  aluminous  earth,  by 
agitation  in  -  the!  purpose.     Though  no  car- 

bonutc  of  lime  at,  it  is  cercain  that  the  soils  were  neutral*— that  is, 

that  they  contained  in  some  other  combination  enough  lime  to  make  fer- 
tile and  absorbent  soils.  This,  added  to  the  quantity  of  finely  divided  vege- 
table mould.  Em  ne  clay  coo  posing  nearly  the  whole  earthy  portion, 
forms  a  soil  thai  ho!ds  water  like  a  sponge,  and  must  be  peculiarly  favora- 
ble to  the  growth  cf  grass.j  This  alone  wiil  suffice  to  account  for  prairies 
being  formed  on  such  soils — even  if  soils  so  destitute  of  silicious  parts  are 
not  (as  I  think  to  be  very  ..:  do  not  know  them  to  be)  as  unfavo- 
rable to  the  growth  of  trees  as  are  dry  calcareous  soils. 

Practical  application  of  the  foregoing  view*,  far  the  improvement  and  belter 
*     cultivation  of  pruirit  lands. 

The  calcareous  prairie  soils,  as  well  as  all  those  not  calcareous,  are  in 
general  remarkably  deficient  in  sand,  and  would  be  far  more  valuable  but  for 
this  deficiency.  This  excess  cf  aluminous  earth  (or  pure  clay)  and  not  the 
calcareous  matter,  causes  the  remarkable  and  troublesome  adhesiveness  of 
these  soils.     Is  it  also  not  like';-  ;  defect  of  constitution  is  owing 

the  great  prevalence  on  prairie  soils  of  the  rust  in  cotton  !  It  cannot  be 
caused  by  the  calcareous  earth,  as  two  of  the  specimens  which  were  sent 
by  Dr.  Withers  from  land  peculiar!}*  subject  to  produce  that  disease,  con- 
tained no  carbonate  of  lime.  But  whether  or  not  the  rust  is  one  of  the  evil 
effects  of  a  great  deficiency  of  sand,  there  are  enough  others,  to  make  it 
very  desirable  to  remedy  this  defect  in  soils  otherwise  so  valuable.  This 
might  be  don?  by  the  process  of  paring  and  burning  the  surface,  as  is  often 
done  in  England,  when  a  new  or  sod-covered  field  is  brought  from  pasture 
into  tillage.  The  firs:  preparing  of  prairie  soil  for  tillage,  by  the  plough,  is 
very  laborit  ips  it  would  not  be  much  more  troublesome  to  pare 

and  burn  the  sod.  This  would  be  the  most  perfect  preparation  for  tillage  : 
and  the  unrottedand  redundant  vegetable  matter  would  be  converted  from 
a  nuisance  to  a  benefit ;  and  the  fine  clay,  burnt  to  brick-like  particles,  would 
form  an  artificial  coarse  sand,  serving  to  open  and  cure  the  previous  close 
texture  of  the  soil.  If  the  turf  had  already  been  conquered  by  tillage,  burn- 
ing clay  in  kilns,  as  wzs  practised  for  manure  in  Europe,  and  by  some  in 
the  Atlantic  states,  would  serve  the  same  purpose  of  providing  a  durable 
earth)*  ingredient  acting  mechanically  like  coarse  sand.  By  paring  and 
burning  the  surface  of  the  soil,  prairie  lands  might  also  be  made  more 
healthy.  It  is  true  that  they  are  now  considered  generally  healthy — the  cal- 
careous prairies  especially.  Bui  .e  may  be  lime  enough,  in  most 
cases,  to  hold  in  combination  the  immense  quantity  e  matter,  still 
the  latter  must  be  greatly  in  excess  in  many  cases ;  and  when  so,  must  be 
rapidly  decomposing,  after   being  ploughed,  and  evolve  effluvia  injurious 

*  Essa\  do  Cal.  Ma'. 

|  Mould  [Ita-emi]  can  absorb  double  its  weight  ol  water  without  app 
and  after  being  dried,  il  draws  from  ihe  atmosphere  in  le>»  than  twentj 
quantity  of  water,  which  may  vary,  according  to  the  humidity  of  the  atmi 
80  to    100  per  cent  Essay  oa  Cal. . 


CALCAREOUS  MANUHES— APPENDIX.  ^79 

to  health,  li  the  prairie  lands  could  by  a  miracle  !»■  suddenly  and  com- 
pletely deprived  of  all  their  lime,  the  decomposition  and  waste  in  the  air  of 
their  putrescent  matter,  now  he!, I  combined  and  harmless,  would  make 
them  as  sickly  as  the  western  coast  of  Africa. 

/.'      ptiona  ami  apparent  contrddictions  explained. 

Supposing  these  general  causes  to  operate  in  the  formation  of  prairie 
lands,  the  least  reflection  will  show  that  their  power  an<l  effects  will  he 
often  greatly  modified  by  other  circumstances.  It  is  well  known  that  in 
prairie  regions,  the  borders  of  rivers  and  small  streams  are  generally 
clothed  with  trees.  They  are  protected  from  the  fires  in  some  measure  by 
the  dampness  of  the  earth,  and  because  low  bottoms  are  more  sheltered 
from  winds.  The  river  also  is  a  secure  barrier  against  the  flames,  and 
therefore  always  guards  one  of  its  banks,  at-  least  Even  the  close  neigh- 
borhood of  those  exempted  pla  ;  lence  of  the 
flames;  and  spots  abundantly  calcareous,  and  lying  high,  might  thus  retain 
their  wood  growth.  It  would  re  [uire  that  the  flames  should  pass  over  a 
considerable  space,  and  with  a  full  supply  of  dry  fuel;  to  requi- 
site force  and  rapidity  for  producing  destruction.  Therefore  the  vicinity  of 
the  wooded  banks  of  a  river  would  not  probably  I  from  wood- 
land to  prairie,  by  any  fires  driven  by  winds  firm  1  the  river.  To  produce 
this  effect,  the  winds  which  prevail  in  dry  seasons  must  drive  the  flames 
tnirurds  the  rivers,  and  downward  between  their  forks.  The  existing  state 
of  things  on  the  borders  of  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  (as  1  have  been 
told)  accords  well  with  this  position.  The  north-west  winds  are  generally 
dry,  and  blow  with  great  violence;  and  wherever  their  direction  is  between 
the  forks  of  streams  and  down  their  course,  the  prairie  extends  nearly  or 
quite  to  the  water's  edge.  But  streams  running  from  the  opposite  slope  of 
the  great  valley,  oppose  the  course  and  obstruct  the  effects  of  these  fires — 
and  the  easterly  winds,  which  would  bear  on  them  in  like  manner  as  to  di- 
rection, are  generally  accompanie  I  by  rain.  Therefore,  in  the  last  situation 
calcareous  soils  may  retain  their  growth  of  trees,  and  in  the  former,  soils 
well  constituted  to  nourish  and  anppi  rt  them,  may  1»  brought  to  the  state 
■  »f"  pour  prairie  land. 

If  these  general  views  are  well  founded,  the  manner  in  which  prairies  are 
formed  can  no  longer  be  mistaken ;  and  though  a  highlj  calcareous  soil  is 
deemed  the  most  general  and  the  must  important  means,  the  theory  serves 
as  satisfactorily  to  Explain  the  existence  of  prairies  on  various  other  situa- 
tions, though  the  soil  be  not  calcareous. 

/  finin.   lands  in  tht  linn  atom  region  oj   Vii 

In  the  foregoing  observations  I  have  limned  the  total  absence  ol  prairies 
m  the  Atlantic  states  to  the  eastern  slope  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea, 
and  to  all  poor  land  even  among  the  mountains.  In  the  rich  Umestone 
lands  ol  Rockbridge  and  Clarke  counties, -and  perhaps  on  aimilai  soils  etoe 
where  between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  Alleghany  mountains,  there  certainly 
were  prairies  at  an  earfy  period.  When  that  part  ol  \  irgtnia  was  firs! 
settled  by  the  e  of  inhabitants,  large  bodies  of  land  were  covered 

entirely  by  young  sapling  w I,  and  there  were  other  indisputable  proofs 

that  at  an  earlier  time  few  trees,  if  any,  had  been  there  growing  I'.ul 
though  these  lands  are  enough  impregnated  with  lime  (in  some  form)  to  be 
very  rich,  and  to  be  favorable  to  the  growth  of  grass,  they  contain  no 


280  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 

bonate  of  lime* — and  therefore  the  land  must  have  been  brought  to  the 
prairie  state  slowly  and  with  difficulty,  under  the  long  continued  operation 
of  annually  repeated  fires — and  their  intermission  for  a  few  years  was 
enough  to  enable  the  soil  to  again  throw  up  a  new  growth  of  young  trees. 
These  appearances  were  so  well  known  in  Rockbridge,  that  some  very  in- 
telligent persons,  born  and  reared  in  that  county,  have  thence  inferred  that 
the  wood  cover  of  our  country  was  every  where  comparatively  recent, 
and  that  at  some  former  and  not  very  remote  time,  every  part  of  this  con- 
tinent had  been  without  trees;  which  is  an  example  of  very  erroneous  rea- 
soning from  particular  to  general  facts. 

Of  soils  rendered  barren  by  excess  of  calcareous  matter— and  the  fertility 
produced  on  them  by  irrigation. 

The  "  bald  prairies"  of  Alabama  present  the  only  known  cases  in  the 
United  States  of  bodies  of  land  so  highly  calcareous  as  to  be  thereby 
lessened  in  productiveness.  This  effect  will  increase  as  exhausting  culti- 
vation shall  lessen  the  vegetable  ingredients  of  the  soil ;  and  probably 
(under  a  continuation  of  such  tillage)  the  barren  spots  will  extend  widely 
into  what  now  form  their  fertile  margins.  The  quantity  of  vegetable  matter 
accumulated  in  the  highly  calcareous  prairie  soils  is  now  so  great,  that  a 
very  long  course  of  exhausting  tillage  will  be  borne  before  sterility  can  be 
produced.  Nevertheless,  however  remote  may  be  that  result,  its  occur- 
rence is  not  the  less  sure,  if  exhausting  tillage  is  pursued.  Similar  to  our 
rich  prairies  probably  was  the  original  state  of  the  now  poor  chalk  downs 
of  England,  the  almost  barren  plains  of  "Lousy"  Champagne  in  France— 
and  some  of  the  still  more  hopeless  deserts  of  Asia  and  Africa.  The  fur- 
nishing or  retaining  of  a  sufficiency  of  vegetable  matter  would  cure  this 
kind  of  barrenness,  and  more  easily  will  prevent  its  extension  beyond  its 
present  limits,  in  our  own  new  country.  In  other  countries,  water  alone, 
used  for  irrigation,  has  had  the  effect  of  making  highly  fertile,  and  keeping 
it  so,  land  so  calcareous  that  it  would  otherwise  have  been  altogether  bar- 
ren. Many  facts  of  this  kind  may  be  gathered  from  the  writings  of  travel- 
lers; but  their  notices  are  very  slight,  and  merely  incidental,  as  unfortu- 
nately, none  who  have  viewed  and  described  these  lands,  possessed  any 
agricultural  knowledge.  Some  of  these  passages  will  be  quoted.  In  some 
far  remote  future  time,  perhaps  the  overflowing  wells  of  southern  Alabama, 
may  be  used  to  irrigate  the  excessively  calcareous  soils,  and  to  retain  or 
restore  their  fertility. 

Denon,  in  his  Travels  in  Egypt,  (Am.  Ed.  vol.  ii.,  p.  4,)  when  at  Siut,  or 
Lycopolis,  2^  degrees  south  of  Cairo,  speaks  thus  of  the  Lybian  range  of 
mountains.  "  I  found  this,  as  I  had  supposed,  a  ruin  of  nature,  formed  of 
horizontal  and  regular  strata  of  calcareous  stones  more  or  less  crumbling, 
and  of  different  shades  of  whiteness,  divided  at  intervals  with  large  ma- 
millated  and  concentric  flints,  which  appear  to  be  the  nuclei,  or  as  it  were, 
the  bones  of  this  vast  chain,  and  seem  to  keep  it  together,  and  prevent  its 
total  destruction.  This  decomposition  is  daily  happening  by  the  impression 
of  the  salt  air,  which  penetrates  every  part  of  the  calcareous  surface,  de- 
composes it,  and  makes  it,  as  it  were,  dissolve  down  in  streams  of  sand, 
which  are  at  first  collected  in  heaps  at  the  foot  of  the  rock,  and  are  then  car- 
ried away  by  the  winds,  and  encroaching  gradually  on  the  cultivated  plains 
and  the  villages,  change  them  into  barrenness  and  desolation."  The  Lybian 
chain  of  mountains  which  runs  nearly  parallel  with  the   Nile,  there  ap- 

*  Eisay  on  Calcareous  Manures,  p.  51. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX  £81 

proaches  very  close  to  it,  and  the  narrow  strip  of  fertile  and  irrigated  land 
between  must  necessarily  have  been  deeply  though  gradually  covered  by 
the  same  calcareous  sand ;  (indeed  the  continued  operation  of  the  like 
causes  is  raising,  not  only  the  borders,  but  even  the  bed  of  the  Nile  ;)  yet 
Denon  mentions  particularly  the  high  state  of  cultivation  seen  in  his  next 
day's  journey  up  the  river.  It  is  well  known  that  wherever  the  waters  of 
the  .Nile  have  been  conveyed  to  irrigate  these  sands,  an  astonishing  degree 
of  fertility  has  been  the  immediate  consequence ;  and  that  wherever  the 
canals  for  this  purpose  have  been  permitted  to  become  dry,  (often  the  effect 
of  political  causes  on  this  wretched  population,)  there  is  as  sure  a  return  to 
the  former  state  of  naked  and  barren  sand.  There  is  reason  also  to  be- 
lieve (though  upon  slighter  foundation,)  that  portions  of  the  great  deserts  of 
both  Asia  and  Africa  also  are  excessively  calcareous,  and  owe  their  ste- 
rility to  that  cause,  combined  with  the  general  absence  of  water.  The  only 
direct  testimony  as  to  this  character  of  the  soil,  is  in  the  following  passage 
from  Madden's  Travels.  He  was  in  the  desert  between  Egypt  and  Judea. 
"Next  day  we  travelled  all  day  long  without  seeing  a  single  tree,  or  the 

smallest  patch  of  verdure,  or  laying  our  eyes  on  any  human  being." 

"  The  soil  was  no  longer  sandy,  but  of  a  hard  gravel,  on  which  a  carriage 
might  be  rolled  Irom  Salehie  to  Suez.  At  night  we  stopped  at  a  well  with- 
out water,  and  here  I  examined  the  soil,  three  feet  below  the  surface ;  [for] 
two  feet  deep  there  is  a  superficial  stratum  of  calcareous  pebbles,  and 
below  that,  a  solid  bed  of  limestone,  which  I  believe  to  be  the  basis  of  the 
soil  of  all  Egypt."— [p.  122,  vol.  ii.,  Am.  Ed.] 

"  One  thing  is  certain  that  wherever  there  is  water,  no  matter  in  what 
part  of  the  wilderness,  there  vegetation  is  to  be  found.  The  stopping  up 
of  the  canals,  and  the  want  of  irrigation,  are  the  great  causes  of  desolation 
which  favor  the  extension  of  the  desert.  The  country  from  San  to  Salehie, 
and  probably  to  Suez,  was  formerly  a  cultivated  country  :  the  ruins  of 
palaces,  such  as  those  of  Zoan  and  that  of  Beit  Pharoon,  now  in  the  middle 
of  the  desert,  prove  that  the  country  around  then  must  have  been  cultivated, 
and  that  at  a  very  short  period  before  our  era."—  lb.  p.  126. 

Lieut.  Burnes,  who  has  recently  published  the  very  interesting  account  of 
his  travels  across  central  Asia,  after  describing,  in  various  detached  passages, 
the  barren  and  often  naked  sands  of  the  great  Tartarian  desert,  over  which  he 
had  been  many  weeks  passing,  and  of  the  great  scarcity  of  water  even  in  the 
few  wells,  and  the  total  want  of  it  elsewhere,  thus  describes  the  approach  to 
the  river  Moorghab,  or  Merve,  and  the  effects  of  irrigation.  "By  the  time  the 
sun  had  set,  we  found  ourselves  among  the  ruins  of  forts  and  villages,  now 
deserted,  which  rose  in  castellated  groups  over  an  extensive  plain.  I  have 
observed  that  we  were  gradually  emerging  from  the  sand-hills,  and  these 
marks  of  human  industry  which  we  had  now  approached,  were  the  ancient 
remnants  of  civilization  of  the  famous  kingdom  of  Merve,  or  Meroo.  Be- 
fore we  had  approached  them,  we  had  not  wanted  signs  of  our  being  de- 
livered from  the  ocean  of  sand,  since  several  flocks  of  birds  had  passed 
over  us.  As  the  mariner  is  assured  by  such  indications  that  he  nears  land, 
we  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  we  were  approaching  water,  after  a 
journey  of  1 50  miles  [from  the  last  habitable  spot]  through  a  sterile  waste, 

where  we  had  suffered  considerable  inconvenience  from  the  want  of  it." 

'•  This  river  was  formerly  dammed  above  Merve,  which  turned  the  principal 
part  of  its  waters  to  that  neighborhood,  and  raised  that  city  to  the  state  of 
richness  and  opulence  it  once  enjoyed.  The  dam  was  thrown  down  about 
45  years  ago  by  Shah  Moorad,  a  king  of  Bokhara,  and  the  river  now  only 
irrigates  the  country  in  its  immediate  vicinity.  The  inhabitants  cultivate  by 
irrigation,  and   every  thing  grows  in  rich   luxuriance" and   where  the 


2S2  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPKNBIX. 

waters  have  been  withdrawn,  as  stated  above,  the  country  is  againa  desert, 
and  the  former  habitations  are  tenantless  ruins.  Another  inhabited  and  culti- 
vated spot  iii  the  desert  is  afterwards  thus  mentioned.  "The  country  around 
Shurukhs  is  well  watered  with  aqueducts,  from  the  rivulet  of  Tejend,  which 
is  a  little  brackish,  but  its  waters  are  usefully  employed  in  fertilizing  the 
fields.  The  snil  is  exceedingly  rich,  and  possesses  great  aptness  of  agricul- 
ture; the  seed  is  scattered  and  vegetates  almo<J  without  labor.   The  harvest 

is  rich." -The  inhabitants  repeat  a  tradition  that  the  first  of  men  tilled 

in  Shurukhs,  which  was  his  garden,  while  Serendib  or  Ceylon  was  his 
house  !     There  is  not  a  tree  or  a  bush  to  enliven  the  landscape." 

But  these  speculations,  however  plausible,  would  require  many  additional 
facts  and  proofs,  to  place  them  on  as  sure  ground,  as  I  flatter  myself,  the 
earlier  part  of  this  essay  has  done  for  the  cause  of  the  formation  of  prairies. 
However  interesting  it  may  be  to  the  inquiring  mind  to  extend  views  so  far 
upon  unexplored  ground,  prudence  admonishes  that  in  that  way  I  have  al- 
ready exceeded  the  proper  limits  of  argument  sustained  by  known  and 
undoubted  facts. 

\ddendum. 

Since  the  first  publication  of  this  piece  (in  1835)  there  have  come  under 
my  notice  many  statements  of  facts  serving  to  confirm  the  positions  as- 
sumed, and  none  to  oppose  them.  Most  of  these  statements  are  of  more 
extended  observations  of  other  prairie  soils  and  prairie  regions,  which  are 
unnecessary  to  recite,  as  they  agree  generally  and  fully  with  the  numerous 
particular  examples  cited  in  the  foregoing  pages.  Some  other  of  such 
evidences,  on  a  different  branch  of  the  subject,  will  be  here  added,  in  con- 
firmation of  some  of  the  positions  before  presented. 

It  was  stated  above,  on  the  authority  of  Denon,  that  the  soil  of  part  of 
the  sandy  desert  of  Egypt  (near  Lycopolis)  which  is  encroaching  on  and 
covering  the  rich  borders  of  the  Nile,  consists  of  almost  pure  carbonate  of 
lime,  in  calcareous  sand  formed  by  the  continual  disintegration  of  the  range 
of  Lybian  mountains,  there  close  adjacent.  Also,  on  general  authority 
and  understanding  of  the  facts,  that  this  calcareous  sand,  though  forming 
a  barren  and  naked  desert  wiien  dry,  was  made  fertile  wherever  moistened 
naturally  or  artificially,  by  the  waters  of  the  Nile.  Other  facts  were  stated 
of  places  which  are  now  and  have  long  been  naked  deserts  of  dry  sand, 
which  are  known  to  have  been  formerly  watered  by  the  industry  of  man, 
and  were  then  highly  fertile.  And  hence  my  inference  that,  wherever 
watering  of  barren  sands  had  induced  fertility,  such  sands  must  have 
been  highly  calcareous ;  and  that  the  great  abundance  of  the  calcareous 
ingredient  is  both  a  cause  of  the  barrenness  of  such  soils  when  dry,  and  of 
their  immediate  change  to  productiveness  and  subsequent  great  fertility, 
when  supplied  with  water.  If,  (to  suppose  a  case.)  instead  of  70  per  cent. 
of  finely  divided  carbonate  of  lime  in  the  soil  of  what  is  now  a  desert,  there 
had  been  but  10  percent,  of  that  ingredient,  and  all  the  other  parts  had 
been  silicious  sand  and  clay,  it  may  be  presumed  that  the  land  would  be 
much  less  barren  than  it  is  in  these  highly  calcareous  deserts,  and  with 
a  moderate  share  of  rain  might  be  actually  and  highly  fertile.  In  Egypt 
rain  is  a  very  rare  occurrence ;  and  therefore,  except  where  watered 
naturally  or  artificially  from  the  .Nile,  the  highly  calcareous  sands  are  with- 
out moisture,  and  must  necessarily  constitute  a  perfectly  barren  desert. 

The  Lybian  mountains  being  composed  of  calcareous  rock,  continually 
disintegrated  and  blown  away  by  the  winds  in  fine  sand,  would  also  alone 
serve  to  prove  that  the  vast  extent  of  desert  sand  thus  spread  over  Egypt 


CALCARE0D8  MAM  HI  -    AEPENDIX 

must  be  largely  composed  of  carbonate  <>f  lime.  Hut  il.at  is  not  all. 
Malte-Bran  says— "The  analysis  Of  the  mud  ol  the  Nile  irives  nearly  one 
half  of  argOlaoeoni  earth,  about  om  fourth  ■  ■/  carbonaU  q)  lime  the  remain- 
der consisting  "I  water,  oxide  of  iron,  anil  carbonaU  Univer- 
sal Geography,  book  Lc.)  This  is  the  deposite  of  the  overfl  i  wings  of  the  boun- 
teous Nile,  and  which  annually  manun  -t  state 
of  fertility,  all  the  sands  to  which  it  is  conveyed  by  the  inundations.  The 
s.inii'  high  authority  furnishes  si  une  additional  testimony,  confirmatory  of 
Demo's,  as  to  the  calcareous  composition  of  soils  of  or  near  the  deserts, 
or  of  rooks  which  by  their  disintegration  must  help  to  form  the  neighboring 
soil.  "  The  mountains  on  the  west  side  of  the  Vile  seem  to  consist  of  lime- 
stone containing  many  shells.  In  those  on  the  east  side,  serpentine  and 
granite  seem  to  form  the  highest  ridges."  -The  valley  leading  to  CosSehr 
[on  the  Red  Sea]  is  covered  with  a  sand  partly  calcareous,  partly  quartz- 
ose.  Th*  mountains  are  of  limestone  and  sandstone."  '  Oeog.booklx. 
"  At  the  distance  of  eight  miles  from  Cosseir  the  n  oiiritains  suddenly  change 
their  character;  a  great  pari  <>f  them  are  limestone,  or  alabaster  in  strata. 
Here  are  found  the  debris  of  the  nana." — -Towards  the  valley 
of  Suez,  the  mountains  are  calcareous,  and  in  several  places  composed  of 
concreted  shells."  (//>.  book  fcr.l 

The  same  author  speaks  thus  of  the  country  and  desert  of  Barca,  which 
is  south  of  a  part  of  Barbery,  and  north  of  the  Zahara  or  great  African 
desert.  "Some  call  Barca  a  di sett,  and  the  interior  certainly  merits  that 
name." — "  The  coast  of  B  in  a,  once  famed  for  its  three-fold  crops  [as-stated 
by  Herodotus  and  Strabo]  is  now  very  ill  cultivated ;  the  wandering  tribes 
of  the  desert  allow  no  rest  to  the  inhabitants,  or  security  to  their  labors." — 
"A  sandy  plain  at  the  bottom  of  the  mountains  [a  part  of  the  desert  from 
Siwah  to  Andelah]  presents  on  its  surface  an  immense  calcareous  bank, 
which  contains  no  traces  of  petrifaction,  while  the  adjacent  mountains  are 
full  of  the  remains  of  marine  animals  and  shells.  These  are  also  met  with 
here  in  large  isolated  heaps."     (lb.  book  I 

Kezzan  is  surrounded  by  the  desert,  and  seems  to  partake  of  the  character 
of  the  desert  in  all  respects,  except  in  the  close  neighborhood  of  abundant 
water  under-ground,  and  of  its  consequence,  the  exuberant  fertility  for 
which  this  country  is  celebrated.  Malte-Bran  says  of  Fezzan,  -In  the 
whole  country  t'.ere  is  no  river  or  stream  worthy  of  notice.  The  soil  is  a 
deep  sand  covering  rocks,  and  sometimes  a  calcareous  or  argillaceous  earth. 
There  are  numerous  springs,  which  supply  water  for  the  purposes  of  agri- 
culture. The  whole  of  Fezzan,  indeed,  abounds  in  water  at  a  moderate 
depth  underground,  derived,  no  doubt,  from  the  rains  which  fall  on  hills 
more  or  less  distant,  perhaps  on  the  confines  of  the  desert,  and  though  ab- 
sorbed by  the  sand,  find  their  level  among  the  loose  strata,  across  a  broad 
extent  of  desert,  till  they  becom  e  in  Fezzan,  and  impart  to  the 

country  its  characteristic  fertility."  (lb.  book  I. rr.)  Though  the  author  (or 
his  translator)  has  used  the  word  "  springs,"  it  is  evident  from  the  context 
that  the  sources  of  water  are  not  what  we  here  understand  by  springs,  but 
are  wells,  requiring  to  be  dug  to  reach  the  water  to  be  thence  drawn, 
and  not  furnishing  flowing  streams. 

But  even  if  there  were  no  direct  or  positive  evidence  of  these  sands  be- 
ins  calcareous,  enough  of  indirect  evidence  would  be  presented  in  the  well 
known  fact  that  exuberant  productiveness  i>  induced  wherever  watering 
is  applied.  And  wherever  such  results  are  stated  by  travellers  to  be  pro- 
duced on  barren  sands  anil  in  deserts,  in  any  part  of  the  world,  it  may  be 
safely  assumed  that  calcareous  earth  must  form  a  sufficient,  if  not  a 
mperabundant  portion  of  the  soil.     Unfortunately,  no  travellers  through 


234  CALCAREOUS  MANURES-APPENDIX. 

sandy  deserts  and  irrigated  regions  have  been  competent,  and  enough 
observant,  to  describe  the  agricultural  qualities  of  the  soils.  I  have  not 
heard  of  there  having  been  brought  away  any  specimens  of  such  remark- 
able soils,  except  in  a  single  case ;  and  for  which  one  opportunity  for  obtaining 
direct  proof  of  the  ingredients  we  are  indebted  to  the  enlightened  curiosity 
and  investigating  mind  of  an  American  lady.  "When  I  was  lately  (in  1842) 
at  the  Patent  Office  in  Washington,  I  saw  among  many  other  collected 
subjects  of  curiosity,  a  small  bottle  labelled  "  Sand  from  the  desert  of 
Barca."  It  had  been  obtained  and  was  presented  by  Mrs.  Macauley,  the 
wife  of  David  S.  Macauley,  the  American  consul  at  Barca.  I  asked  for  and 
obtained  a  small  portion  of  it,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  its  com- 
position in  regard  to  calcareous  matter.  Upon  trial  I  found  it  to  contain 
49  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime !  This  sand  is  very  fine,  of  a  pale  yellow 
color,  and  would  offer  to  the  eye,  or  to  slight  observation,  no  indication  of 
being  any  thing  else  than  almost  pure  silicious  sand,  slightly  tinged  by 
ferruginous  matter. 

It  may  6eem  to  some  readers  that  these  speculations  on  sandy  deserts, 
upon  such  few  data  furnished  in  positive  facts,  are  a  wide  departure  from  the 
investigation  of  prairie  soils ;  and  that  the  deductions,  even  if  established, 
are  more  curious  than  useful,  and  can  lead  to  no  practical  result.  But  it  is 
not  so,  if  the  lights  thus  obtained  are  properly  applied.  The  facts  here 
presented  in  connexion  with  others  previously  discussed,  serve  to  show 
that  the  same  cause,  (a  very  large  proportion  of  calcareous  earth,)  according 
to  the  existence  or  changes  of  other  circumstances,  may  produce  in  soils 
either  the  highest  degree  of  fertility,  or  the  most  complete  sterility.  These 
modifying  circumstances  are  the  presence  in  the  soil  of  much  putrescent 
matter,  the  accumulation  of  ages  of  repose  under  grass,  or  of  abundance  of 
water — or  of  the  absence  or  great  deficiency  of  both.  It  may  be  merely  a 
matter  of  curious  speculation,  however  correctly  deduced  from  the  positions 
here  maintained,  that  it  is  possible,  and  perhaps  would  be  profitable,  merely  by 
raising  water  to  the  surface,  .to  bring  to  a  state  of  productiveness  most  of 
the  naked  and  burning  deserts  of  Africa.  But  another  deduction  is  not 
merely  a  matter  for  idle  and  amusing  speculation,  but  is  a  most  important 
truth,  and  strictly  applicable  to  practice ;  which  is,  that  the  rich  prairie 
regions  of  the  west  and  south-west  of  the  United  States  and  of  Texas,  if 
continued  to  be  scourged  unremittingly  by  exhausting  tillage,  will  finally 
become  deserte  as  barren  as  those  of  Lybia  and  Barca. 


I    \\.>   IREOUS  MANURES     APPKNUIX  285 

NOTE   V!l.  —  /:.i-.'  •   t  from  pp.  57  and  110. 

.   I. lit    1NCHEASINO    THE    PRO- 
>    Till:    HBALTHPOLNB8S    OF    THE    ATMOSPHERE. 

It  was  stated  at  pages  103-4,  that  though  the  practical  results  of  applica- 
tions of  calcareous  manures  conformed  strictly  to  the  theory  of  their  action  as 
previously  laid  down,  yet  thaaexceeded  the  measure  or  amount  of  effect 

which   would  have  been  anticipated   from   the   theory   alone,      since  a 
•  portion  of  this  work  has  been  printed,  1  have  I  of  the  dis- 

covery, by  Dr.  William  L.  Wight,  of  ■  i  a  before  unknown  pro- 

perty of  calcareous  earth,  which  operates  to  increase  in  an  important 
degree  its  fertilizing  power,  anil  also  ils  health-pri  lower,     I  was 

favored  by  a  mutual  friend  with  the  perusal  ol  a  rough  draught  of  an  i 
in  which  these  views  were  incidentally  pn  which  Dr.  Wight 

had  designed  for  publication  in  a  medical  journal.  I  immediately  re- 
teff  him  to  communicate  these  particular  and  interesting  views,  in  such 
form  as  would  suit  agricultural  and  general  readers,  for  publication  in  the 
Fanners'  Register.  To  this  he  assente  1 ;  and  I  had  hoped  before  this  time 
to  have  been  enabled  thus  to  present  the  article  entire  to  t lie  public,  in 
which  case,  it  might  here  be  merely  rfil  alreadyin  the  possession 

of  my  readers.  The  communic  ition  has  been  received  ;  but  too  late  to  be 
included  in  the  (ew  remaining  pages]  of  the  i  uners' 

ter,  or  to  prei  e  of  this  note;  though  it  will  appear 

at  length  in  the  first  number  of  the  second  set  una!. 

Before   stating   the   newly  discovered  iove    referred  to,   it  is 

necessary  to  introduce  t'lem   by  some  general  sta  -tablished  or 

received  opinions  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  and  functions. 

The  atmosphere  is  composed  mainly  or  oxygen  and  nitrogen  gases, 
(and  which  two  alone  are  de<  il  to  the  constitution  of  atmo- 

spheric  air)  with   a  very  small    bul    i  occurring   admixture  of 

carbonic  acid  gas.  The  o-.v;eii  .jas  (formerly  termed  "  vital  air."  from  its 
admitted  quality,)  is   that  part  of  the  which  is  essential  to  the 

life  of  breathing  animals,  and  which  is  diluted  to  form  atmospheric  air  by  the 
mixture  of  nitrogen  gas,  and  also  by  the  sm  ps  accidental,  but 

always  present  carbonic  acid  gas,  either  of  «  i  i  not  only  incapa- 

ble of  supporting  life,  but  to  breathe  which  is  deadly,  and  immediate  in  its 
fatal  effects.  Hence  it  has  been  supposed,  and  it  is  difficult  to  deny  the 
positions,  thai  is  to  the  atmosphere  must 

render  it  more  healthful,  and  to  increase  the  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  gas 
must  render  it  less  so.  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  these  deductions, 
though  In  accordance  with  the  known  and  opposite  qualities  of  these 
different  gases,  and  with  reason,  are  not  sustained  by  the  analyses  which 
have  o  atmospheric  air  in  various  places.     For  it  'these  analyses 

are  to  be  entirely  confided  in,  they  wouid  show  that  in  all  situations,  the 
highest  or  the  lowest,  the  most  pu  d  and 

fatal  to  human  life,  the  pri 

By  the  respiration  of  animals,  the  atmospheric  air  is  partially  decom- 
posed, and  the  relative  amounts  of  its  ingredients  altered,  at  least  for  the 
time.  Some  of  the  oxygen  gas  of  the  air  inhaled  is  retained  by  the  lungs  and 
given  to  the  blood;   and  some  nearly  formed  carbonic  a.  i  en  out 

from  the  lungs  continually,  and  added  to  the  atmosphere.     Thus,  the  breath- 
ing, or  the  existence  of  animals,  if  acting  alone,  or  not  counteracted,  would 
serve  continually  to  deteriorate  the  purity  of  the  atmosphere,  and  to  render 
it  less  conducive  to  the  support  of  healthy  animal  life. 
36 


286  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX 

But  to  this  very  general  operation  of  animal  life,  there  is  as  general  and 
as  operative  a  'countervailing  action  in  vegetable  life.  Carbonic  acid  gas 
is  essential  to  the  health  and  growth  of  plants,  and  serves  to  furnish  them 
with  a  very  large  if  not  indeed  their  larger  proportion  of  bulk  and  sub- 
stance. All  that  part  of  every  vegetable  substance  which  can  be  converted 
to  charcoal  (or  carbon)  has  been  furnished  to  the  plant  from  the  atmo- 
sphere in  the  shape  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  which  is  a  combination  of  oxygen 
gas  and  carbon.  The  leaves  of  growing  plants  absorb  this  ingredient 
from  the  atmosphere,  and  retain  and  fix  the  carbon  as  part  of  their  sub- 
stance, and  evolve  the  pure  oxygen  ;  thus  taking  from  the  air  some  of  its 
poisonous  ingredient,  and  adding  to  it  new  supplies  of  the  purifying  or 
health-supporting  gas.* 

It  follows  necessarily  from  these  premises  that  if  by  any  means  these 
universal  powers  and  continual  action  of  plants,  to  absorb  carbonic  acid 
gas  and  evolve  oxygen  gas,  be  in  any  manner  increased,  that  proportional 
increase  must  be  given  by  the  first  to  the  growth  of  the  plant,  and  by  the 
second,  proportional  purification  and  healthiness  to  the  atmosphere. 

To  these  general  views  and  positions  the  recent  observations  of  Dr. 
Wight  apply  admirably.  He  ascertained,  by  a  series  of  careful  and  well 
conducted  and  repeated  experiments,  that  the  diffusion  of  carbonate  of  lime 
in  water  with  which  plants  were  nourished,  caused  in  the  plants  a  great 
and  remarkable  increase  of  both  the  above  named  actions ;  so  that  they 
absorbed  much  more,  in  some  cases  a  quadrupled  quantity,  of  carbonic 
acid,  and  evolved  as  large  an  increased  quantity  of  oxygen  gas.  If  this  be 
so— and  the  manner  of  the  experiments  stated  leaves  no  ground  to  doubt 
the  accuracy  of  their  conduct,  or  of  their  results— then  there  can  be  no 
question  of  the  following  important. deductions  :  that  besides  all  other  modes 
and  powers  of  fertilizing  action  of  lime  in  soil,  as  maintained  in  this  essay, 
it  also  causes  plants  to  draw  from  the  atmosphere  a  very  large  accession 
of  nutriment ;  and  to  increase  in  proportion  the  measure  of  their  ordinary 
purification  of  the  atmosphere.  And  therefore,  these  interesting  and  new  ob- 
servations serve  to  confirm  and'  to  show  additional  and  important  reasons 
for  the  operation  of  calcareous  manures  both  for  increasing  the  productive- 
ness of  lands,  and  of  lessening  the  amount  of  disease  among  the  residents 
thereon  and  in  the  vicinity. 


NOTE  VIII.—  Extension  of  subject  from  page  161. 

DIRECTIONS    FOR    BURNING    AND    APPLYING    OYSTER-SHELL    LIME. 

The  following  directions  and  remarks  may  be  useful  to  some  of  those 
persons  to  whom  shell-lime  will  be  cheaper  than  either  marl  or  stone  lime. 

Oyster-shells  are  brought  by  vessels  to  the  landing  places  of  the  purchasers 
on  the  James  river,  and  sold  on  board  usually  at  G2A  cents  the  hogs- 
head, of  18  heaped  bushels.  Where  fuel  is  plenty,  the  shells  and  dry  pine 
wood,  in  alternate  layers,  are  built  up  in  a  heap  of  cubical  form  for  burning. 
In  this  manner,  if  judiciously  executed,  12  cords  of  wood  are  sufficient  to 
burn  100  hogsheads  of  shells  to  quick-lime.  A  more  careful  mode  of  burn- 
ing was  used  by  the  late  Fielding  Lewis,  of  Weyanoke,  which  was  de- 
gcribed  in  an  account  of  his  farming  in  the  Farmers' Register,  for  June,  1333, 
and  which  will  be  copied  below,  together  with  his   mode  of  application ; 

*  As  this  is  the  greatly  preponderating  action  of  vegetables,  the  smaller  reverse  opera- 
tion (which  takes  place  at  night)  is  passed  over,  as  unnecessary  to  be  referred  to  more 
fully  than  in  this  manner. 


1  IX  287 

which  is  still  deemed  I       rest  foi      parating  the  particles  of  lime  and 
log  it  equally  over  the  land;  arifl  also  (I  u  another   important 

lin  combined 
with  oarbonic  acid  i  |  time 

lose  kilns,  with  walls  of  brick  or  stone,  have  not  yet  been  used  to  burn 
r shells  for  manure  ;  and  until  fuel  becomes  more  costly  than  th 
ditional  transportation  of  the  Ume.it  will  be  cheaper  to  use  wooden  Kilns. 
What  are  commonly  called  lime  kilns  are  merely  heaps  of  wood  and  shells, 
built  up  in  a  somewhat  cubical  form,  by  which  the  burning  is  imperfectly 
performed  at  great expei  ugh  without  much  trouble.    Mr.  Lewis 

burns"  his  shells  in  the  following  manner.     A  pen  of  sixteen  or  seventeen 
,  is  built  of  round  green   pine  :  i   where  they  lock, 

so  as  i  r  as  their  farm  will  allow,)  and  with  a  fl 

similar  logs,  chinked  with  ent  the  shells 

ping  through.   The  botl  aer  blocks,  of 

twelve  Inches,  so  as  to  leave  a  vacancy  Of  twelve  or  fifteen  inches  between 
the  earth  and  the  bottom  of  the  floor!  which  is  to  I  •  ly  with  dry 

wood.  The  walls  of  the  pen  are  raised  a!. out  nine  feet  ;  and  about  one 
hundred  logs  of  six  to  eight  inches  through  (which  these  now  put  up  seemed 
to  be,)  usually  sen  ir  and  side  walls.     The  shells  are  thrown  in, 

and  in  layers  of  different  degrees  of  thickness,  according  to  their  order,  and 
separated  by  thin  layers  of  pine  wood,  cul  og,  and  split  to  the 

usual  size  for  fuel.  The  size  of  the  last  kiln  burnt  by  Mr.  L.,  according  to 
his  memorandum  ba  '  illows: 

Kiln  17  feet  square  and  9  feet  high,  inside  me 

The  lowest  bed  of  shel  e  thinks  it  might  as  well  have  been 

1 2  inches.) 
The  second  bed  of  shells  12  in 
third  16 

fourth 
fifth 

sixth  C> 

The  layers  of  wood  bet  |Ua),  and  about  six  inches.     The  kiln 

took  one  hundred  I  ,  shells,  and  consumed  ten  od  in 

the  layers,  ami  three  kiln  should 

be  fired  in  calm   weather;  and   if  the  wind  iSes.it   should  be 

kept  oil' as  much  as  p  oi  whatever  may  be  most 

convenient. 

The  burning  (in  preference)  is  done  in  March,  or  as  soon  alter  as  may  be. 
The  newly  burnt  shells  are  carte  1  fothi  i  as  th(  yare  i 

and  deposited   in  small    , 

distances  of  sis  yards.  The  field  is  previously  ploughed,  and  marked  off 
carefully  in  checks  of  si:  ,..    These  small  heaps  of  shells  are 

immediately  ipletely,  but  not  heavily,  by  the  surrounding  earth 

being  drawn  over  them  with  broad  hoes.     If  a  heavy  rai  h  the 

lime  before  this  covering,  much  of  it  woo'!  mortar, 

difficult  to  manage,  and  impossi  ired  in 

'ure  absorbed  from  the  earth  will  usua  I       lime 

in  forty-eight  hour-  n  and  mixed  with  ' 

and  carefully  spread  so  a-  and  is  then 

well  harrowed,  more  effectually  to  distribute  and  mix  the  lime  with  the  soil. 
The  quantity  applied  to  the  aoe  Is  about  si  e  burnt  and 

unslaked  shells,  which  quantity  by  burning  6  hogsheads  ( 108 

9)  of  shells;  and  the  same,  if  well  burnt,  will  swell  in  slacking  t 
or  130  bushels.     The  lime  is  always  put  on  a  part  of  the  field  of  the  fourth 


2yy  CALCAREOUS  MAN' LUES— APPENDIX. 

year,  and  is  put  under  field  pens  the  same  year.  The  red,  or  cow  pea,  is 
preferred,  being  considered  must  profitable  ibr  live  stock  ;  and  as  that  is  a 
late  kind,  it  should  be  planted  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  20th  of  .April, 
that  the  crop  may  mature.  Two  after  plouglungs  and  one  slight  Land  weed- 
ing serve  to  cultivate  the  crop;  and  its  product,  Mr.  L.  thinks,  though,  with- 
out having  made  any  e>;periment  or  careful  estimate,  usually  pays  the  whole 
expense  of  the  liming.'- — F.  Register,  coL  »'.  p.  18. 

The  shells  sold  to  the  farmers  are  obtained  at  the  various  landings  on 
York  and  the  lower  James  river  and  their  tributaries,  where  oysters  are 
opened  in  great  quantities  for  sale.  On  some  of  the  lands  bordering  the 
Potomac,  there  are  much  cheaper  and  universal  sources  of  supply,  in  ancient 
accumulation,  of  shells  called  "  Indian  banks,"  and  which  are  now  used  to 
burn  lime  from  for  manure  for  farms  in  the  Northern  Neck.  Very  recently 
there  has  been  brought  into  use  a  new  source  of  supply  on  James  river. 
This  is  the  young  living  oysters  and  old  shells  which  together  form  entire 
shoals  in  some  parts  of  the  river,  and  which  are  raked  up  in  mass  to  load 
the  vessels.     These  shells  are  s  r  less.     As 

these  are  mostly  small  and  thin  shells,  they  could  more  easily  than  ordinary 
shells  be  pulverized  by  a  mill-stone  running  on  its  circumference,  as  in  a 
tanner's  bark  mill;  and  in  this  manner  all  fie  rich  animal  matter  would  be 
preserved,  which  is  destroyed  by  burning. 


NOTE  IN. 

•  N    THE     10URCES    or    MALARIA,  OR  OP    AUTUMNAL    DISEASES,  IN  VIRGINIA,  AND  THE 
MEANS    OF    REMEDV    AND    PREVENTION. 

{From  the  Farmers'  Resist:  r  of  Jult;-  1838.) 

Throughout  the  course  of  publication  of  the  Farmers'  Register,  it  has 
been  one  of  the  main  objects  of  the  editor  to  attract  attention  to  the  causes 
and  effects  of  malaria,  or  unhealthy  marsh  effluvia,  and  to  enforce  his  views 
as  to  the  means  of  restraining  or  preventing  this  greatest  of  the  evils  under 
which  the  eastern  half  of  Virginia  suffers.  To  forward  this  end,  every  fit 
opportunity  has  been  availed  of;  and  the  subject  has  been  treated,  directly 
and  at  length,  or  incidentally  and  slightly,  in  various  articles  in  these  vo- 
lumes. But  there  has  been  found  but  little  if  any  encouragement  to  perse- 
vere in  this  course.  The  editor  has,  alone,  and  without  any  certain  evidence 
of  approval  of  his  views  and  his  course,  and  certainly  without  any  practical 
adoption  of  his  recommendations,  labored  in  this  cause,  which,  to  his  un- 
derstanding, demands  the  support  of  all,  on  considerations  of  economy  and 
agricultural  improvement  and  profit,  as  well  as  on  the  more  important 
grounds  of  the  strength  or  frailty  of  the  tenure  by  which  the  people  of  half 
of  our  entire  territory  possess  and  enjoy  health,  happiness,  and  even  life. 
It  is  under  such  impressions  of  the  high  importance  of  the  whole  subject, 
that  the  readers  of  this  journal  are  again  invited  to  its  consideration  ;  and, 
probably,  for  the  last  time,  by  the  present  writer,  if  there  continues  to  be  no 
more  interest  excited,  and  action  produced,  in  regard  to  the  evils  existing, 
and  which  are  multiplied  ten-fold  in  power  by  the  ignorant  and  careless 
legislation  of  this  commonwealth. 

The  views  of  the  writer  on  this  subject  were  presented  generally,  and  at 
some  length,  in  an  editorial  article  (pp.  41  to  43)  in  vol.  v.,  Farmers'  Regis- 
ter, on  the  causes  of  and  means  for  preventing  the  formation  and  the  effects 
of  malaria  in  eastern  Virginia ;  and  also  in  sundry  shorter  incidental  pas- 


CALCARE01  B  M\M  RES     A.PPEN1HX. 

sages  in  each  of  all  the  volumes,  in  connexion  with  articles  on  marshes, 
mill-ponds,  and  canals,  &<•.  But  as  it  would  be  requiring  loo  much  of  read- 
ers that  they  should  either*  remember!  or  carefully  refer  to  these  various 
articles,  a  general,  though  slight  view  of  the  whole  subject  will  be  here 
presented,  sustained  by  additional  facts,  which  have  been  recently  learned 
by  personal  Inquiry  and  observation. 

That  the  common  autumnal  or  bilious  diseases  of  eastern  Virginia,  and 
especially  of  tin-  tide-water  portion,  which  is  most  subjected  to  them,  are 
principally  cause,i  by  the  efliuvia  rising  from  wet  lands,  is  a  matter  in 
which  all  concur.  between  the  presence  of  these 

disorders,  in  low,  wet,  or  marshy  countries,  and  their  absence,  or  scarcity, 
in  mountainous  and  dry  regions,  is  so  great,  thai  none  can  mistake,  or 
differ  about,  the  gmtrai  causes  and  effects.  .But  from  this  general  opinion, 
which  is  true  in  the  main,  (though  having  numerous  and  important  excep- 
tions,) there  is  deduced  the  erroneous  1  gene- 
ral  effects  produced  on  health,  in  extensive  regions  either  generally  low  and 
wet,  or  generally  hilly  and  dry,  are  produi  e  opposite  natural 
features,  and  cannot  be  very  materially  altered  by  art ;  as  art  cannot  mate- 
rially alter  the  natural  character  of  the  land.  Or,  in  other  words,  that 
nature  has  made  one  great  region  low  and  sickly,  and  another  high  and 
healthy;  and  that  man  cannot  do  much  to  counteract  the  law  of  nature  in 
either  case.  Perhaps  none  may  maintain  this  position,  in  argument,  without 
admitting  partial  I  in  numerous  particular  cases  and  localities. 
Indeed,  every  man  will  say  that  care  may  lessen  the  causes  and  mitigate 
the  operation  of  malaria,  in  a  sickly  region,  or  increase  both  in  a  healthy 
one.  But.  judging  from  the  action  of  both  the  people  and  their  laws,  which 
speaks  more  strongly  than  words,  it  may  be  inferred  that  it  is  a  general 
belief  that  such  headings  of  nature  from  her  course  can  be  but  slight,  in 
particular  cases,  and  scarcely  worth  estimating  on  a  broad  scale,  or  through 
an  extensive  country.  In  entire  conformity  with  this  supposition,  it  is  a 
notorious  fact  that  very  few  individuals  in  Virginia  have  done  any  thing 
considerable,  or  on  system,  to  protect  their  dwelling  places  from  malaria; 
and  the  government  has  not  only  done  nothing  for  general  protection,  but 
has  actually  caused  the  worst  of  the  existing  evils,  and  is  encouraging  their 
continued  increase  and  aggravation,  by  the  olicyofthe  country; 
which  permits  the  raising  of  mill-ponds,  that  are  productive  of  little  else 
than  malaria  and  disease;  and  indirectly,  but  effectually,  forbids  the  drain- 
age of  extensive  swamps.  The  production  and  deadly  effects  of  malaria, 
in  eastern  Virginia,  fir  the  greater  part,  is  to  be  charged,  not  to  the  laws  of 
God,  but  to  the  laws  of  man  ;  which,  in  this  respect,  operate  to  put  away  or 
sacrifice  some  of  the  most  precious  of  God's  blessings,  offered  to  all,  to 
gratify  the  whims,  or  the  blind  and  often  mistaken  avarice,  of  a  few  indivi- 
duals. There  are,  doubtless,  great  natural  differences  as  to  the  sickliness 
of  differently  situated  regions;  as  between  the  low  tide-water  region  of 
Virginia,  the  central  or  hilly,  and  also  the  mountainous  region.  But,  in 
their  natural  state,  before  damaged  by  mill-ponds  and  other  of  man's  mis- 
called improvements,  the  low-country  was  probably  less  afflicted  by  malaria 
than  the  hilly  parts  now  are,  or  may  be  rendered  by  the  full  extension  of 
these  injurious  operations  of  man.  This  is  a  matter  of  mere  supposition, 
and  cannot  possibly  be  subjected  to  the  rigid  test  of  proof  by  known  facts. 
But,  from  reasoning,  and  inferences  from  such  facts  as  are  known,  it  seems 
most  probable  that  some  of  the  now  most  sickly  counties  on  tile-water 
were,  at  the  first  settlement  of  the  country,  less  sickly  than  the  hilly  and 
originally  very  healthy  county  of  Brunswick,  for  example,  has  been  in 
latter  years. 


290  L  AI.CAKtOUS   MANLKEs-APPENUIX. 

Even  the  very  important  fact  of  increased  and  increasing  sickliness  in  tins 
country,  is  entirely  without  support  from  any  known  written  authority  ;  and 
the  whole  subject  has  been  so  little  examined,  or  thought  of,  that  to  most 
readers  the  position  here  assumed  may  be  entirely  new.  There  are  no  sta- 
tistics of  health  to  which  we  can  refer  for  proof.  But  general  and  historical 
facts,  few  as  they  are,  if  fairly  considered,  will  suffice  to  place  the  question 
beyond  dispute. 

Before  proceeding  further  in  this  part  of  the  argument,  let  me  remark  that  1 
am  opposed  in  the  outset,  and  shall  be  opposed  throughout,  by  the  reluctance 
felt  by  every  individual  to  believe,  or  if  believing,  to  admit,  that  his  particular 
property,  or  place  of  residence,  is  more  sickly  than  others,  or  has  become  more 
so  than  in  former  times.  This  self-delusion,  and  consequent,  though  per- 
haps undesigned  effort  to  deceive  others,  is  almost  universal.  Each  man 
claims  for  his  own  place  more  healthiness  than  in  truth  ought  to  be  admit- 
ted ;  and  the  combined  effect  of  all  these  individual  claims,  is  to  maintain 
that  the  whole  country  is  more  healthy  than  is  true,  and  more  so  than  each 
individual  would  have  claimed  for  it,  with  the  exception  of  his  own  farm  and 
his  own  neighborhood.  It  is  against  this  universal  prejudice  and  obstruction 
that  I  have  had  to -contend  in  seeking  for  facts,  and  shall  have  to  contend  in 
argument ;  and.  with  such  opposition,  there  is  but  small  hope  of  maintain- 
ing my  ground,  or  producing  conviction  of  the  soundness  of  my  views,  in 
the  minds  of  those  who  have  so  prejudged  the  case. 

One  of  the  strongest  proofs  of  the  greater  former  healthiness  of  the  low 
country,  was  the  settlement  of  our  English  ancestors  having  been  made 
and  continued  at  Jamestown.  It  was  on  May  13th,  when  they  landed;  and 
now,  a  residence  on  that  spot,  or  in  that  region,  continued  for  five  months 
after  that  time  of  the  year,  would  be  fatal  to  half  of  the  strangers  from  a 
northern  climate,  even  though  provided  with  all  the  comforts  and  necessaries 
which  a  long-settled  country1  affords,  and  all  of  which  the  first  settlers  most 
deplorably  needed.  It  is  true,  that  for  some  years  after  the  first  settlement, 
there  was  much  sickness,  and  numerous  deaths ;  and  that  in  fact  the  infant 
colony  was  more  than  once  on  the  point  of  extinction.  But  these  diseases 
and  deaths  do  not  seem,  from  the  direct  and  the  still  stronger  indirect  testi- 
mony of  history,  to  have  been  attributed  by  the  sufferers  to  an  unhealthy 
location ;  and  there  were  sufficient  other  causes  for  all  that  was  suii'ered,  in 
the  usual  and  unavoidable  privations  of  the  first  colonists  of  a  new  and  sa- 
vage country,  added  to  the  extreme  improvidence  and  mismanagement  of 
these  settlers,  and  their  government,  as  detailed  in  history.  Even  after 
several  years  had  passed,  and  though  cultivating  a  very  fertile  soil,  and 
aided  by  annual  supplies  of  food  from  England,  and  with  all  the  resources 
of  trade  with  the  savages,  hunting  and  fishing,  still,  want  of  food  was  one 
of  the  greatest  causes  of  disease  and  death.  Of  course,  there  must  have 
been,  under  any  circumstances,  more  or  less  of  disease  caused  by  malaria; 
and  although  any  predisposition  to  such  disease,  naturally  induced,  must 
have  been  violently  urged  to  action,  and  aggravated  to  ten-fold  malignity, 
by  hunger,  intemperance,  exposure  of  every  kind,  depression  of  spirits,  and 
every  other  painful  emotion  of  the  minds  of  men  in  such  desperate  straits, 
still,  even  with  all  these  aids,  the  prevalence  of  autumnal  diseases,  the  effect 
of  malaria,  was  not  so  conspicuous  as  to  stamp  the  character  of  sickliness 
on  the  location,  or  to  induce  even  the  proposition  to  remove  the  colony,  or 
afterwards  its  seat  of  government,  to  a  much  higher  or  more  healthy  situa- 
tion. The  unavoidable  inference  seems  t<>  be,  that  the  great  sickliness  of 
the  early  settlers  was  not  attributed  by  themselves  to  the  climate.  Yet,  this 
was  a  question  on  which  they  could  not  possibly  have  been  deceived.  And 
even  if  most  others  had  been  deceived,  by  ignorance,  and  the  want  of  ex- 


i   a*  \ui  hi  -  M  .\i  RES     \iti:.\mx  291 

perience  ol  the  effects  ol  malaria,  (his  could  not  have  own  the  ease  with 
smith,  the  moat  efficient  director,  and  (he  true  fdhnder  of  the  colony ;  who 
would  have  known  better,  not  only  by  bis  general  inteltigi  nee,  but  also  by 
his  experience  of  such- effects,  gained  in  his  camps  I  the  Turks. 

it  may  be  alleged,  that  fear  of  tin-  savi  ■  i   than  the  dread  of  dis- 

ease,  caused  the  choice  <>f.  and  alter  continuance  on,  an  unhealthy  spot,  bo- 
it  was  more  easily  guari  and  perfectly  acce 

to    ships.      I  i  defence,    and   on    deep   water, 

might  have  been  selected  at  lir  t  up  the  river;  and'yel  James- 

town and  its  Immediate  neightx  chtel  place  in  Vlr- 

;  ements  had 

been  extended  tn  distant  and  inland  places.  The  proof  ol  my  position 
would  he  sufficiently  proved  by  any  attempt  made  nowto  settle  Englishmen' 
just  arrived,  on  the  border  of  almost  any  of  our  tide-wati  lecially 

nbout  the  junction  of  the  salt  and  fn  Several  such  trials  have 

been  made  with  foreign  laborers;  but  the  first  autumn  was  enough  to  put 
an  end  to  each  experiment,  by  inllieting  so  much  disease  and  death  as  to 
prevent  any  of  the  uother  season,  who  could 

possibly  move  away. 

There  can  be  but  little  doubt  also,  but  there  was  much  less  of  autumnal 
diseases,  or  at  least  of  violent  and  fatal  diseases,  before  the  revolutionary 
war  than  now.  There  was  no  such  thing  then,  as  the  healthy  residents  leav- 
ing home  in  summer,  as  is  so  usual  now.  to  spend  the  sickly  season  among 
the  mountains,  or  at  the  north;  nor  does  it  appear  that  there  was  much 
suffering  for  want  of  such  resources,  although  the  climate  must  even  then 
have  become  very  far  more  unhealthy  than  in  the  early  times  of  the  colony. 

Another  striking  proof  of  the  increased  tendency  of  the  country  to  pro- 
duce, disease,  even  within  the  last  sixty  years,  is  presented  by  history,  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  occupation  of  Yorktown  by  the  British  army  in  1781, 
and  the  siege  carried  on  by  the  American  army;  and  especially  in  regard 
to  the  hastily-levied  militia  from  the  mountail  and    healthy 

parts  of  Virginia.  Cornwallis  chose  his  position  first  in  Portsmouth,  and 
afterwards  In  Yorktown,  with  a  view  to  health,  as  well  as  defence,  to  await 
the  arrival  of  reinforcements  from  New  York.  His  army  was  concentrated 
at  Yorktown  shington  reached  Williamsburg,  Sept< 

14,  and  the  American  army  moved  on  thence  to  invest  Yorktown,  Sept 
30,  and  the  surrender  of  the  British  army  was  made  on  Oct  1'Jth.  Thus, 
both  armies  were  exposed  to  the  Worst  part  of  the  malaria  season,  and  the 
British  army  to  the  whole  of  it.  Among  the  besiegers  were  raw  militia, 
just  raised  for  the  occasion,  from  Rockbridge  county,  (of  which  portion  I 
have  been  more  particularly  informed,)  and  probably  from  sundry  others 
of  the  mountain  counties.  There  was  certainly  much  sickness,  and  espe- 
cially among  the  British  troops;  but  not  more  than  is  usual  in  camps,  and 
especially  in  I  all   the  privations  incidental  to  the 

confined  situation.  It  does  not  appear,  from  the  very  slight  notices  in  his- 
tory, that  there  was  more  sickness  than  might  have  been  expected  if  the 
same  circumstance  had  occurred  in  the  hilly  n  )   of  \  irgiui.i.    Yet, 

if  the  like  circumstances  could  occur  now,  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  but 
that  every  soldier,  not  already  acclimati  d,  and  accustomed  to  malaria,  would 
be  made  sick;  and  that  probably  half  of  those  just  brought  from  breathing 
the  pure  mountain  air,  would  never  return  home. 

Another  indirect  proof  is  presented  in  the  >  decline  of 

most  of  the  lower  counties  of  Virginia  in  wealth,  and  in  the  usual  accom- 
paniments of  wealth,  which  formerly  i  nee  delightful  in  many 
neighborhoods  in  which  there  is  nothing  now  lelt  to  invite  any  one  n>  ri 


292  CALCAREOUS   MANURES— APPENDIX. 

main.  It  is  true  that  other  causes,  political  and  economical,  have  concurred 
to  produce  this  result.  But  the  most  potent  of  the  several  causes  was  the 
slow  and  silent,  but  continual  and  increasing  warfare  on  the  health  of  body 
and  mind,  made  by  the  action  of  malaria.  By  its  operation,  when  scarcely 
amounting  in  effect  to  positive  and  known  disease,  the  mind  is  sickened 
even  more  than  the  bod}'.  The  buoyant  spirits  are  tamed — energy  is  re- 
laxed— the  keen  appetite  for  enjoyment  (which  is  the  greater  part  of  hap- 
piness) is  lost;  and  the  victims  of  malaria  cease  to  strive,  or  to  enjoy;  and 
either  sink  into  apathy  and  listlessness^  or,  urged  by  discontent,  more  than 
by  any  remains  of  energy,  take  the  final  step  of  emigration  to  the  western 
wilderness. 

But  the  upper  country  furnishes  still  stronger  evidence,  because  of  posi- 
tive and  unquestionable  facts,  to  prove  an  increase  of  the  product  and  effect 
of  malaria.  The  hilly  country  between  the  falls  of  the  rivers  and  the 
nearest  mountain-range,  with  the  exception  of  some  comparatively  small 
spots,  on  swamps  and  rivers,  was  formerly  as  free  from  this  scourge  as  is 
now  the  mountain  region.  But  the  number  and  the  extent  of  the  unhealthy 
places  have  greatly  increased  within  the  memory  of  those  now  living;  and 
some  large  districts  have  been,  in  particular  seasons,  as  subject  to  bilious  dis- 
eases, and  still  more  to  violent  ones,  than  the  tide-water  region.  Indeed,  in 
very  many  places,  universally  believed  (unless  by  the  mill-owners;  to  be  in- 
juriously affected  by  the  neighborhood  of  mill-ponds,  these  effects  of  malaria 
are  of  as  regular  recurrence  in  autumn,  as  on  places  near  to  any  of  the 
marshes  of  the  low  country :  and  are  much  more  dangerous. 

The  third  and  highest  region  seems  destined,  notwithstanding  its  better 
defence  in  mountain  sides  and  peaks,  and  the  rarity  of  flat  surface  on  which 
to  form  wide  and  shallow  ponds,  to  take  its  turn  next,  as  the  victim  of  ma- 
laria. Already,  in  that  part  of  the  mountain  region  in  and  about  Frederick 
county,  there  have  been  particular  autumns  which  seemed  almost  pestilen- 
tial. And  though  such  cases  of  general  and  virulent  disease  are  rare, 
particular  cases  of  autumnal  diseases  are  now  frequent  in  many  such  places 
where  they  were  rarely  heard  of  thirty  years  ago. 

These  statements  may  be  considered  by  some  as  exaggerated  or  unfound- 
ed—and, by  others,  if  admitted  to  be  true,  considered  as  showing  the  want 
of  both  patriotism  and  policy,  in  the  writer's  thus  exposing  the  enormous 
existing  and  still  growing  evils  under  which  the  country  suffers.  In  regard 
to  the  former  point,  I  admit,  in  advance,  the  scarcity  of  particular  and  posi- 
tive facts,  to  serve  as  proofs,  which  is  found  throughout  the  whole  subject ; 
and  that  among  the  existing  difficulties  of  obtaining  such  facts,  (and  still 
more  by  a  single  and  unaided  individual,  who  has  had  little  opportunity  to 
make  proper  researches,")  I  have  to  rely  mostly  upon  general  and  loose 
opinions,  and  deductions  from  general  facts.  Hence  there  is  much  liability 
of  mistake.  But  if  the  public  can  in  any  way  be  driven  to  the  examination 
of  this  subject,  and  numerous  individuals  be  excited  to  search  for  facts, 
whether  to  sustain  or  to  oppose  my  views,  the  arrangement  and  presentation 
of  such  facts  will  serve  as  materials,  which  are  now  almost  totally  wanting, 
and  will  enable  this  all-important  question  to  be  hereafter  properly  discussed 
and  correctly  determined. 

If  there  were  no  hope  for  relief,  there  would  certainly  be  no  use  in  e* 
posing  or  dwelling  upon  these  distresses  of  our  people.  But,  though  no- 
thing yet  has  been  done  for  relief,  nor  does  it  seem  to  have  entered  the 
imagination  of  our  legislators,  and  though  all  they  have  yet  done  has  been 
to  add  strength  to  the  evil,  still  it  is  my  confident  opinion,  that  relief  may 
be  furnished  for  this  sorest  evil  of  the  land,  and  furnished  easily  and  pro- 
fitably ;  and  that  it  is  perfectly  within  the  power  of  man  to  dry  up  the  most 


CALCAREOUS  MAM  Kl  ID1X. 

fruitful   sources  of  malaria,  and  to  bring  the  whole,  or  very  nearly  Ihc 
whole  el  Virginia,  to  a  si  |Jjy  us  that  of  any  oj 

world.      II'  Mch  a  result  is 

ertiofl  for1!  and  nothing  will  tandu 
by  ili'-  people  ir  11  ...ity  of 

the  evil  which  presses  upon  the  country. 
It  is  not  rhy  purpose  to  attempt  to  investigate  the  cause  a;:d  trace  the 
e  of  operation  i  i  malaria.     Though  worthy  of  every  ca, 
as  a  scientific  question,  it  is  one  which  as  yd  has  entirely  I 

-;tinn.     IJ111  •  as  yet   unknown    whal 

Viracter  of  this  subtle  iluid,  and  what  are  the  prei     | 
stances  under  wliich  it 

aneftil  influence*"-1  still  the  hiain  and  most  ini] 
of  no  question.     Tims,  and  in  general,  all  persons,  from  the  m 
to  the  most  learn 

mpsphere  in  hot  weather,  from  m  irshy  ground  and  stagnant  • 
tends  to  produce  tin-  common  autqm 

ture. 
Though  I  speak  of  malarl  i  as  an  api  ifor  a  fluid,  or  gas  .  it  is. 

notdesignad  to  found  my  argument  uptin.fhe  truth 
for  convenience,  as  well  as   because  inclining  to  the  belief,  malaria  i  i 
spoken  of  as  a  material  aeriform  product,  yet,  it  may  I 
term  to  designate  the  particular  <v 

certain  causes,  which  condition  operates  to  |  :  strengthen  . 

nal  diseases.     Still  less  do  I  mean  to  maintain  '...  in  ifjnr.  ate  rial, 

is  of  any  one  kind  pf  gas,  or  any  p  Idnds. 

Besides  tii.  niaiiy  other  common  points  on  which  the  le 

investigators  o|   malaria  totally  j  insist 

upon  deducing  general   principles  from  his  own  particu 
posed  facts,)  and  so  slightly  and  incorrectly  have  sui  h  fai  ts  bi 
that  the   general  mes   lost    in    the   contra 

different  instructors.     Thus,  flying  from  particular  and  isolated  ob 
tionSj  with  some  writers,  there  is  no  condition  of  circumstances  whii 
not  sometimes  in  a  warm  climate  produce  malaria  j  and  with 
equally  partial  and   imperfect  observation  of  other  facts,  the  •  r 
denied  to  lie  usually  caused  by  any  of  the  circumstances  which  are 
rally  deemed  the  most  certain  and  fruitful  sources.     One  wril 
has  known  an  exemption  from  disease  in  those  who  lie 
marsh,  or  a  stagnant  pond;  and  hencft  he  denies  I 
materia,  and  accordingly  scare,  in  other  circumstanci 

hafV  known  the  effects  of  malaria  on  troops  encamped  in  a  high  di 
the  mountains  of  Spain,  wtiere  the  soil   was  dry  and  stony,:;. 
except  rapidly  flowing  rivulets,  and   the  place  sonic  null 
nearest  marsh  or  lake.     Hence  be  • 

this,  in  certain  (unknown  ices,  throws  out  abundance  of  m 

Considering  the  circumsl  which  most 

have  been  written,  it  would  be  si 

The  authors   of  most    of  them  were  army-surgeons  an 
«,  observed  the  effects  of  malaria  in  s 
at  all  acclimated.     Perhaps  the  author  was  confined  ton 
limited  in   his  observations  to  the  line 

in  a  country  to  which  he  was  totally  a  Strang'  r,  an.l  among  .1 
whose  opinions  he  could  not  learn,  and   whose  I; 

not  understand.     If  a  physician  '  'ha  '  merely 

accompanied  his  inarch  through  \  irginia,  and  been  cooped  up  in  Yorktown 
27 


294  CALCAREOUS  MANWiES— APPK^IHX 

during  the  siege,  had  written  a  treatise  on  the  diseases  ry,  he 

would  have  been  better  prepared  to  treat  i  I  most  of  those 

have  essayed  such  tasks;  and  lie  probably  vfou  as  a 

regular  disease  of  swept  off  in 

numbers  the  absconding  s  were 

crowrod  together  in  Yorktown    Until  the   surrender,  i 
disease  has  never  been  known  in 

All  agree  that  decaying  and  putrefying  \  itter  is  one  of  the 

greatest,  if  not  the  only  source  of  malaria.  I   en.  in  addition  to 

the  sufficient  abundance  of  the  material,  the  circu:  -  luciee 

to  its  putrefaction  must  lie  the  most  favorable  to  the  production  of  malaria. 

The  presence  of  moisture,  a  cert., 
air,  are  circumstni  ■  ,   to  putrefaction",  and  of  course  to  the  pro- 

duction of  malaria  :  and  neither  can  take  pi  three 

0/ these  ess  favorable  than  a  less  quan- 

tity ;  and  entire  covering  by  water  would,  by  excluding  air,  nearly  prevent 
fermeir  -  consequence,  the  formation  an 

It  is  also  qne  of  [he  few  settled  poin  ■ 
malaria  is  ve  east  when  wa  i  sun :  and  hence  the  fact 

known  to  r.  lers  of 

marshes,  and  of  mill-ponds,  sometimes  escn  exhala- 

tions,  when  others,  who  Jive  on  high  hills,  and  at  much  greater  distances 
from  the  sources,  suffer  greatly  by  |  produced!     5 

kind  are  numerous,  and  uf  regular  annual  occurrence,  in  Gloucester  county. 
The  whale  of  the  wide  and  very  levii  s  furnish  residences  very 

health)-,  compared  to  the  tide-water  region  in  genera!;  tiiouch  intersected 
in  every  direction  by  tide-waters,  and  though  there  s"i!l  remains  much 
swamp  land  unreclaimed,  such  as  the  .:!  was  when 

in  awSte  of  nature.  Bit  the  high,  dry  and  hilly  land,  which  fori   -  I 
of  the  county,  is  less  healthy;  and  t!  ■  ited  and  beautiful  sites  of 

mansion-houses  overlooking  the  low-grounds  are  universally  sickly  in 
autumn. 

If  all  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  action  of  malaria  were  as  regular  and 
uniform  as  this  one  just  stated  is  in  Gloucester,  there  would  be  far  less 
doubt  on  the  subject     It  is  the  uniform  character  of  that  county,  in  its 
high-land,  low-ground,  and  also  the  water,  and  the   long  extent  of 
ts  to  be  so  uniform  there.     Owing  to  causes  - 
in  the  dose,  >mds  of  Gloucester.  (Far;  .  oaL'e 

178,  vol.  vi.,)  there  is  but  little  malaria  evolved  there;,  and  if  that  as  sup- 
posed, rises  by  its  greater  levity, 'the  regular  daily  sea-breeze  must 
it  to  float  towards  the  high-lands;  and  the  loni:  and  recukir  line  of] 
cannot  fail  to  receive  it,  and  in  not  ve  noportions.     But  in  most 

other  situations,  even  though  malaria  should  he  produced  in  crreat  quantitv 
and' with  direful  effects,  ;  cts  are  so  -extremely  irre 

places,  the  times,  and  the  intensity  of  their  operation,  ti  lot  be 

certainly  traced  to  their  true  source-;  and  their.  jrce.  may  re- 

main scarcely  suspected,  while  il     ■ 

every  season.     Away  from  the  vicinj  •  ...  nothing  can  be 

irregular  than  the  winds;  yet,  supposing  a  mill-pond  to  produ 
and  large  supply  of  malaria  every  autumn,  (though  that  supply  is 
extremely  irregular,)  it  depends  upon  the  direction,  force,  and  continuance 
of  every  change  of  wind,  whether  and  where,  and  to  what  extent  the 
malaria  will  produce  disease.  It  is  therefore  not  at  all  strange,  nor  opposed, 
as  is  thought  by  some,  to  the  regular  annual  production  of  malaria  or 
Buses  of  sickness  by  each  mill-pond,  that  the  visitations  of  sickness,  at  any 


.        "is   MAM   KKS      .\ITl.\l>t\  290 

ulgr,  and  the  d  often  totally  inex- 

iat.ion  of  cii!  i 

Qaria 

11  111,) 

etfble  matter  to  forwent, 

climate  to  carry  cm  fermentation.     But,  In  the 

,   such  temp 

ts  .•-cfiiiii)  lie  harmless.    Pa/taps  a  small 

quant.:  j  i  aids  the  produc- 

il  operation  i 
quality  u  as  true.     This  is,  that  tl i « ■  ■ 

a  is  s  i  hi  as  to  rise  above  the  lower  air,  still  it  remains 

on  the  surface  or  the  earth  in  til''  night,  after  being  exti 
descends  again  from  abi •  ■  i  l  ol 

that  Ijbeping  on  the  groin  !.  or  in  t.  e  lowest  apartments, and  bi 

to  the  injht-aiv,  inv  i   \s  and  incre 

and    i 

weather,  has  been  .  useful  to  health,  in  places  much  subject  to 

autumnal  levers. 

Thou  en*be  theoretically  true  that evei 

tempi-:  out  malaria  to  a  certain  extent,  it  is 

es  that  are  hurtlul;  ;uul  in  practice,  we  have  only,  if  po§s 
to  avoid  the  fbr,mation  of  the  hurtful  excess  of  tiie  ;  .  rmaotation. 

It',  in  loner  Virginia;  we  the  existing  and  there. 

in-  situation  would  be  one  of  the  healthiest  In  the  world. 
For  v.  -  many  and  fatal  i 

the  Iuiil's   to  which  the   inhabitants  of  northern,  and  what   are   usually  and 
improperly  c  coy   tries  are   peculiarly  subjeet,    v.e   have  no 

■cuiiar  to  e  i  ive  this  one,  which,  I  fully  be- 

lieve, it  is  within  mil 

Putrefying  animal 

table  matter  is  Us  source,                                                              i  there 

i<*h  materi  d.  :i>:ed 

•  i   produce 
nftlaria  in  gjept  quantity^  or  « 

nd  autumn,  or  whi  n 
■  :p,M  ....       •  oft,   as  was  formerly  t:  e  general  practice  in  lo\  i  r  \  irgima 
..ii  all  f  11  ii.-  ■•      re  manure  «  as  know  n  1 1 

irm.     I  loubti'ess, 
malaria,  •  hut  I  haw^ 

never  known 

eilhel  (Vas 

carried  out  and  app 

on  malaria,  one  well-tilled  yard  iiin^ 

.  the^ 
•n  so 
disastrous,  and  so  sure,  al  and 

of  the  absolu' 

But  the  putrelai  i  gs,  as 

earth  and   water,  and   un  Mgh   neither  (hr 

admixture  nor  the  circumstances  are  knowi 


0Q;;  CALCAREOUS  MANURES- APPENDIX. 

such  extent,  that  there  is  no  doubting  or  mistaking  the  connexion  of  causes 
and  cllects.  Such  sure  and  abundant  sources  of  malaria  are  the  following 
materials:  1st,  The  putrid  and  slinking  wafer  of  stagnant  ponds,  partially- 
dried  by  the  heat  of  summer.  2d,  The  mud  bottoms  of  such  ponds,  or  of 
streams  reduced  by  drought,  rich  in  decomposed  vegetable  matter,  and  left 
bare  of  water  only  in  summer.  3d,  Fresh-water  marshes,  of  vegetable 
soil,  frequently,  but  not  regularly,  covered  by  the  tides.  4th,  Fresh-water 
marshes,  laid  dry  by  embankments,  and  thereby  permitted  to  rot  away  ra- 
pidly. 5th,  The  meeting  of  salt  and  fresh  waters  on  land  full  of  vegetable 
matter.  Of  these  several  and  most  important  sources  of  malaria,  1  deem 
the  third  (fresh-water  marshes  in  their  natural  state)  to  be  the  least  hurtful; 
and  that  the  sources  numbered  1st,  2d,  4th,  and  5th,  increase  in  virulence 
in  the  order  in  which  they  are  named.  The  greater  evils  produced  by  the 
last  are  universally  admitted,  but  still  by  an  erroneous  deduction  from  the 
premises.  The  belt  of  the  tide-water  region  of  Virginia,  in  which  the  fresh 
water  flowing  down  the  rivers  mingles  with  the  refluent  salt  water  from 
the  ocean,  is  well  known  to  be  more  subject  to  autumnal  diseases  than  any 
other  extensive  space  in  the  country.  The  breadth  of  this  belt  varies  much 
in  different  seasons.  The  parts  of  the  rivers  in  which  the  fresh  and  salt 
waters  meet,  and  where  each  alternately  has  possession  as  the  tide  ebbs  or 
flows,  ma}?  be  but  a  i'cw  miles  wide,  and  even  that  space  is  not  stationary. 
But  if  the  limits  of  this  belt  be  fixed  by  the  highest  points  to  which  the 
rivers  have  been  known  to  be  brackish  in  driest  summers,  and  by  the 
lowest  points  where  they  are  fresh  in  winter,  then  this  belt  .may  be  consi- 
dered for  the  time  as  40  or  50  miles  wide,  and,  in  length,  stretching  across 
all  the  tide-waters  of  the  state.  But  in  the  much  narrower  space  where  this 
mingling  of  the  salt  and  fresh  waters  usually  takes  place  during  the  heat  of 
summer,  malaria  acts  with  most  intensity.  Hence  the  general  opinion,  that 
it  is  simply  the  meeting  and  mingling  of  the  fresh  and  salt  waters  which 
cause  disease.  This  is  not  so,  or  but  in  a  very  slight  degree.  It  is  either 
the  passage  of  fresh-water  over  salt-water*  marshes,  or  of  salt-water  over 
fresh-water  marches,  that  causes  the  great  production  of  malaria,  and 
disease.  ■  This  is  ah  important  distinction,  and  the  truth  or  error  of  the 
position  deserves  the  most  careful  investigation.  If  the  mere  mingling  of 
the  waters  were  the  cause  of  sickliness,  any  relief  for  this  part  of  the  evil 
would  be  hopeless,  as  the  waters  mitst  meet  and  mix'  together  somewhere. 
But  if  it  be  as  I  suppose,  the  evil  may  be  greatly  restrained  by  works  of  art, 
or  by  simply  preventing  the  unnatural  accumulation  of  vast  reservoirs  of 
fresh  water  in  mill-ponds,  which  when  discharged,  by  breaches  in  the  dams, 
or*by  opening  the  flood-gates,  overflow  salt-marshes,  which  the  natural  or 
unobstructed  stream  never  could  have  covered. 

Salt-water  marshes,  not  touched  by  fresh-water  streams,  are  not  un- 
healthy to  any  considerable  extent.  This  is  susceptible  of  proof  by  innumera- 
ble examples  in  Virginia  on  the  borders  of  the  ocean,  or  of  the  waters  of 
the  Chesapeake  bay.  It  is  rare,  however,  to  find  a  large  salt-marsh  at- 
tached to  extensive  high-land,  which  is  not  reached  by  some  small  stream; 
and  every  salt-marsh  of  course  must  sometimes  be  well  washed  and  fresh- 
ened by  the  heaviest  falls  of  rain.  Therefore  all  must,  slightly  and  at  some 
times,  be  prejudicial  to  health.  These,  however,  are  exceptions  of  but 
small  practical  or  sensible  operation. 

The  view  here  taken  of  the  manner  in  which  malaria  is  produced  most 
certainly,  and  acts  most  injuriously,  though  not  sustained  by  any  known 
authority  in  this  country,  nor  by  any  other  precisely  as  stated  here,  is  not 
therefore  presented  as  original.  1  derived  it,  and  thence  deduced  my  ap- 
plication to  this  country  in  a  modified  form,  from  the  interesting  report  on 


CALCAUKUl'S  , MAM  Ills     AI'VKMUIX.  297 

tin-  malaria  of  I  Ml  mo  i  lieorgini,  of  whicb  the  substance  was  pub- 

Ifshed  in  tw  i  different  p  ipers  In  of  vol!  iv., 

and  46t>of  vol.  y.j    In 'this  repast  the  author  sljow 

argument  an  1  fads,  that  ir  irruptions  of  sea-water  over  tracts 

of  marshes,  or  other  low-groun  alluvial   formation,  caused 

the  long  continued  and  w"i  n*ia:  an  I  that  by  simply  guard- 

perma- 
nently to  he  i  lion,  the  irre- 
gnlar  Qoodings  with  fresh-water  ol  salt-marshes.  But  what  Is  produced 
..I  to  in>  as  well  produced  in  the  other  ease.  The 
mode  in  winch  the  eff< vt  is. produced  is  ii"t  attempted  to  be  <-\  i  >1  iim- 1  by 
the  learned  author  quoted  above;  nor  dues  any  explanation  seem  sufficient 
to  my  poind.  The  rapid  and  abundant  production  of  malaria  may  perhaps 
be  aided,  if  not  entirely  caused,  by  the  luxuriant  cover  of  liesh-water 
plants,  in  tl le  Mg  partly  killed,  and  made  ready  for  putrefaction, 
by  being  covered  by  salt  water;  and  in  the  in  this  country,  by 
a  like  Injurious  operation  on  the  pladts  peculia  to  salt  marshes,  produced 
by  the  overflowing  of  fresh  wah  ,-.  We  kriow  that  certain  plants  flourish 
best  in  salt  and  wet  so  in  wet  soil  entirely  fr%e  from  salt ;  and 
that  respectively  with  the  rdwths,  the  salt  and  the  fresh  marshes 
are  heavily  covered.  It  must  follow  from  a  sadden  change  in  the  condition, 
from  salt  to  fresh,  •                     ■.  that  the  health  of  the  entire  growth  must 

My  injured,  and  much  ol   it  subjected  to  death  and  decay. 
The  next   must  fertile  source  of  malaria,  (or  perhaps   what  is  even  of 

er  malignity,  for  the  small   space  occupied,)  is  presented  in  what  is  en- 
tirely the  Work   Of  man  — the   miscalled   imj  r  inking 
and   partially  or  entirely  dryim:  tide-marshes.     The  softs  of  these*  marshes, 
as  I  have  ascertained  by  careful  analyses,  are  composed,  for  about  half  their 
'.  of  vegetable'  matter,  and  probably  nine-tenths  of  their  bulk  is  of 
aterial,  destructible  by  decpmpositlon,  when  tircumstances  are  lavor- 

to  that  result;  and  drainage  and  cultivation  produce  precisely  the  con- 
dition which  is  most  favorable.  When  covered  twice  every  day  by  flood- 
tide,  a  marsh  soil  of  th  I  ist  putrescent 
materials,  is  but  little  subject  to  decomposition;  because,  being  always  tho- 
roughly water-soaked,  even  when  hot  entirely  covered,  and  by  water  con- 
tinually changed,  the  air  is  too  much  excluded,  and  the  wetness  is  toq  much 
in  excess,  to  favor  thjg  progress  of  decomposition.  When  the  marsh  rises  so 
high  as  not  to  be  covered  by  daily  or  frequent  tides,  then  decomposition 
fc  more  favored  by. the  drier- state  of  the  surface,  and,  to  a  greater  extent, 
malaria  is  evolved,  and  health  injured.  Hence  the  inference,  that  the  higher 
"and  drier  the  marsh,  the  mure  it  is  injurious  to  health/  But  as  soon  as  such 
a  vegetable  and  putrescent  soil  is  made  nearly  dry,  and  still  more  when 
cultivated  and  exposed  to  be  penetrated  by  the  air,  decomposition  proceeds 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances.  The  soil  sinks  annually  and  ra- 
pidly, not  so  much  by  drying  (as  commonly  si  by  actually  rotting 
away  ;  and,  in  a  k\v  years,  it  is  reduced  to  so  low  a  level  as  again  necessa- 
rily to  pass  under  the  dominion  and  shelter  of  the  water.  The  more  com- 
plete the  drainage,  and  the  more  perfect  the  management  as  arable  or  tilled 
land,  the  more  rapidly  is  that  end  reached.  In  the  progress  to  this  end,  a 
layer  of  the  whole  soil,  of  from  one  to  three  feet  in  thickness,  will  have  passed 
off  into  the  air  in  the  gaseous  products  of  putrefaction,  of  which  enormous  pro- 
ducts, a  large  proportion  will  be  malaria,  and  the  effects  produced  by  it  on 
the  health  of  some  of  the  neighboring  population  are  generally  so  evident  as 
to  leave  no  doubt  of  the  source  of  the  evil      More  full  details  on  the  effects 


^98  CALCAKEOlS   MAM "KES— AITEND1X. 

of  embankments  of  tide-marshes  are  to  be  found  id  previous  articles  in  this 
work.* 

The  production  of  malaria  by  the  last  named  operation,  the  embanking  of 
marshes,  however,  is  necessarily  of  very  limited  extent— and,  moreover,  of 
very  limited  duration.  .Nature  soon  asserts  and  enforces  her  rights;  and 
the  hopes  of  the  improver,  and  the  land  so  iuaprqvedj,are  together  ovef- 
whelmed  by  the  reinstatement  of  the  waters,  and  this  source  of  disease  is 
thereby  cut  off. 

Tide-marshes,  however  extensive  and  injurious  in  their  operation  on 
health,  still  are  limited  to  a  comparatively  small  proportion  of  our  broad 
territory.  But  there  is  another  source  which  spreads  disease  gver  half  the 
state,  and  which  is  entirely  of  artificial  fofiiiafion",  and  of  which  the  ey.il  ef- 
fects have  been  becoming  more  and  more  extensive,  and  more  and  more 
virulent,  from  the  early  settlements  of  the  country  to  this  time.  This  wide- 
spread and  generally  operating  source  of  disease  and  death  is  furnished  by 
the  numerous  mill-ponds,  of  variable  height  of  surface,  which  aie  now,  scat- 
tered over  the  whole  face  of  eastern  Virginia,  and  of  widen  every  indivi- 
dual case  adds  something  to  the  general  and  enormous  amount  of  injury  to 
health  and  to  life. 

The  law  of  Virginia  in  regard  to  the  erection  of  mill-ponds,  with  perhaps 
the  exception  of  the  fence-law,  is  one  -of  the  most  stupid,  and  most  regard- 
less, both  of  private  rights  and  general  interests,  of  all  in  our  code:  and  it  is 
far  more  objectionable  than  the  former,  inasmucn  as  while  the  one  merely 
robs  individuals  and  destroys  public  wealth  to  an  enormous  an.ount,  the 
mill-law  permits  and  encourages  also  the  destruction  of  health  and  of  life 
throughout  the  whole  land.  It  is  true,  unfortunately,  that  this  Opinion  is  not 
entertained  by  many  persons;  and  that  even  with  those  who  admit  that 
all  such  mill-ponds  are  injurious  to  some  extent,  their  estimate  of  the 
amount  of  evil  is  much  below  mine.  It  is  my  object  to  awaken  the  com- 
munity to  a  sense  of  the  enormity  of  the  evil,  and  thereby  to  induce  the 
commencement  of  measures  of  remedy  and  prevention.  The  universal  ac- 
quiescence in  this  policy  of  our  country,  and  the  almost  universal  ignorance 
of  the  evils  which  it  produces,  requires  strong  language  to  enfo  ce  novel 
views  in  opposition  to  long  established  opinions.  But  it  is  confidently  be- 
lieved that  my  denunciations  will  be  justified  by  reason  and  by  facts,  and  by 
the  magnitude  of  the  existing  evil-. 

There  has  long  prevailed  in  Virginia  a  mania  for  building  water-mills, 
which  was  not  restrained  by  insulin  ient  regular  supplies  of  water  to  fill  the 
ponds,  nor  by  the  insufficient  prospect  of  business  and  of  pro!;!,  even  if 
there  were  no  failure  of  water.  In  consequence,  there  have  been  not  only 
erected  mills  on  every  stream  barely  sufficient  to  keep  a  common  corn-mill 
■  in  operation,  but  also  on  as  many  others  where  the  water-power  was  either 
insufficient,  or  totally  failed,  during  the  driest  season  of  every  year.  In  the 
tide-water  region,  the  mills  for  grinding  wheat-flour,  or  any  thing  else  for 
sale  abroad,  are  limited  to  the  falls  of  the  rivers.  All  the  others,  (and 
probably  there  is"  on  an  average  one  for  every  square  of  five  miles.)  art 
merely  designed  to  grind  for  toll  the  corn  used  for  bread  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood;  and,  considered  merely  in  regard  to  money-cost  and  profit, 
it  is  most  likely  that  half  the  mills  in  the  country  do  not  cret  enough  toll- 
corn  to  pay  for  more  than  the  costs  of  maintenance  and  repairs  of  their 
establishment.  .  The  more  worthless  the  mill,  on  account  of  the  insufficient 
supply  of  water,  the  more  productive  it  necessarily  is  of  malaria,  diseases, 
and  death.     It  will  be  difficult  for  me  to  make  those  who  are  unacquainted 

*  See  Farmers'  Ke-ish  r,  p.  107,  nncl  120.  vol  i.,  and  p.  41,  ■!-,  vol.  v. 


# 


.    \l.('.\!:i  I  M'lTM'IX  2P9 

with  our  country  believe  that  hundreds  b(  nulls  have  been  (mill,  an. 1  that 
niiisi  of  ore  new  ones  will  probably  yet 

tire  eio    . 

and  the  country  at 

extend  thi  ou  m  ppn- 

dents  of  the  •  as  JHanj;  others  raise  ra  ic  lor 

amusement  ent  and  to  -.  lives,  than 

lor  profit.     But  tl 

mischief  to'ttie  country  i  bred  by  the 

under 
the  law,  any  man  v 

P  in  :  tl  e  tfater  on  some  of  his  neighbors'  !  rig  to  do  but  to  ap- 

11  ;in  order  of  tjie  cdiinty-coort,  by  w |  a  jury 

to  meet  on  the  spot,  to  judge  ol  and  assess  the  d  I  will  be  sus- 

tains,I  by  the  b\\  nere  of  the  las  :  >  be  covered  by  the  pond 

jury  i  en  as  ignorant  and  unfit  fo»  sacfi1 

-  and  estimates  as  I  c  lb  furnish — and  they  iio- 

\  guejs  as  to  hbw  much  land  will  be  i  e  will 

in-  sustained  m  the  Joss  of  the  use  of  the  land.    Bhere  is  no  question  enter- 
tained as  to  whether  a  mill  is  at.«H  required  i  ni  the  neighbors 
for  meal;  and  if  tin'  question!  of  the  effect  on  health  is  even  named,  it  la  id- 
entirely  unacquainted  with,  and  regardless  or  the  whole 
t.     In  fact  t f «..                      i  to  health  has  ran''  lered  in  any 
sui-ii  e  ise ;—  ami  qever  duly  considered.    If  the  land  that  ered  by 
a jiond,  though  very  rich,  is  then  in  the  state  of  swamp,  and  totally  repro- 
ductive, such  an  uninformed  jury  astl                             submitted  to  will  he 
it  such  land  Is                                            |3  an  acre  is 
given                       (pr  the  land  actually  to  be  covered  by  the  pnnd,  it  will 
be  deemed  a  liberal                                          will  rarely  refuse  to  sustain  the 
■  jury. 
Though  the  use  of  the  land    thus  covered  is  for  ever  taken  from  the 
owner,  or,  for  as  long  as  the  mill-owner  ma  pond, 
still  the  fight  of  |ii',,;i,.,iy  is  not                    This  small  reservation  of 

ble  homage  to  justice1,  serves  as  a  still  further  injury  to  the  community. 
and  is  not' of  the  least  value  tb  those  to  v. 

»;,••! i  land  was  thus  cpndemne  I  to  I  e  co- 
il by  a  mill-pond,  th 
pmpared  to  thi  i 

the  purchase-room  md  the  absolute  right  of  property  vi     i 

the   mill-owner.      If  this   were  the  case   now,  there   me   many 
Virginia  wh^ch   would   be  forthwith  laid  dry,  evi  tl      mi's  should 

necessarily  go  down :  because  the  land  -    -  known 

I"  lie  worth   more   for  cultivation  than  the  hundreds  df 

other  mills,  of  l'i  eater  profit  an  I   value,  also,  in  that   case,  won 
supplied  with  water  by  canals  than  by  their  present  ponds,  l.y  which  iheir 

ublic,  and 
ibate  I.     but.  as  the  law  now  - 
if  a  mill,  which  will  not  brine  in  of  net  rent  *r>(l  a  y<  ir,  c   vers  by  Its  pond 
500  acres  of  rich  land  .  vner  hjano 

interest  whatever  in  drain  I.  because   ii 

belong  to  those  persons.     In  anj  ig  to  'his.  and  in  which 

there  would  be  a  gain  to  all  the  individuals  concerned,  by  draining  the 


••♦. 


300  CALCAKEOUS  MA  Nl  HES-APPENDlX. 

pond,  still  it  is  not  done,  and  the  nuisance  continues  long  after  it  is  well 
known  to  be  such,  because  there  is  a  contest  between  the  several  owners 
of  the  pond  and  of  the  land  covered  by  ir,  in  regard  to  their  respective 
shares  of  profit  to  be  gained  by  emptying  the  pond.  Many  such  cases  still 
exist  inlKirginia;  although  many  oi  the  most  unprofitable  ponds,  from  pro- 
per views  of  economy,  have  been  drained,  an  eaper 
and  more  efficient  canals,  or  the  mills  put  down  entirely.  An  old  mill-pond 
in  Dinvviddie  county,  which  covered  1J00  acres  of  land,  has  been  drawn 
off,  and  thereby  an  indifferent  rhill  exchanged  for  a  large  fertile  fartn.  This 
would  not  have  been  done,  even  if  the  mill  was  worthless,  but  for  the 
ownership  of  the  mil!  and  the  land  covered  By  the  pond  falling  into  the 
same  hands.  There  is  a  mill-pond  now  kept  op  In  Prince  George  comity, 
which  is  supposed  to  cover  nearly  ICO  acres  (  .  land  :  and  there  are  :. 
others  not  djU'  anches  of  swamps  in  lower  Virginia. 
The  larger  the  pond,  in  genera1.  proportion  of  bottom  is  lefl 
in  autumn,  and  the  more  disease  is  therefore  produced  ;  and 
draining  of  such  jarj  bJd  be  si  much  the  .  gain, 
there  is  the  less  chance  for  its  being  done,  Lecause  of  the  many  separate 
ownerships  and  Interests. 

Almost  all  the  miils  throughout  the  lower  part  of  Virginia,  and  also  a 
large  proportion  of  those  in  the  more  hilly  -middle  county,  are  worked  by 
streams  which  are  inadequate  to  the  daily  supply  of  the  mill  and  evaporation 
from  the  pond,  even  if  the  grinding  suspended  or  di- 

minished at  any  time.  To  guard  against  the  temporary  failure  in  dry  wea- 
ther, the  full  "  head"  of  the  pond,  (or  the-level  of  water  for  which  damages 
were  assessed,  and  to  which  the  water  may  Lfwfitffy  be  raised.)  is  much 
higher  than  the  lowest  level  that  will  work  the  mill.  The  land  covered 
is  also  usually  very  nearly  level,  so  that  to  raise  tire  water  10  or  15  feet  at 
the  dam,  will  often  back  the  water  from  one  to  two  miles  up  the  low- 
grounds.  If  the  variation  between  a  full  head  of  water,  and  the  lowest 
level,  be  5' feet  perpendicular,  it  will  often  cause  the  uncovering  of  many 
acres  of  the  bottom  of  the  pond  to  the  hot  sun,  and  thereby  furnish  a  most 
fruitful  source  of  malaria  in  every  such  case.  Rich  alluvial  mud.  as  this  al- 
ways is,  thus  exposed  in  hot  weather,  cannot  be  otherwise  than  very  inju- 
rious to  health;  and  there  is  not  a  pond-mill  in  Virginia,  with  a  variable 
head,  which  has  not  more  or  less  of  the  pond  every  summer  thus  converted 
to  a  fruitful  seed-bed  and  nursery  of  disease. 

Besides  this,  there  is  the  not  rare  occurrence  of  the  pond  being  entirely 
drawn  off  in  summer,  by  the  breaking  of  the  dam,  and  its  being  suffer 
so  to  remain  for  weeks  or  months,  before  being  again  repaired  and 
pond  filled.     In  this  case,  a  double  quantity  of  bottom  is  exposed  to  putre 
faction,  and  fitted  for  the  discharge  of  unhealthy  miasma. 

At  all  times,  in  ponds  supplied  by  streai  as  most  of  those 

used  for  mills  in  Virginia,  tne  water  approaches  to  a  stagnant  state;  and 
therefore  of  itself  is  a  producer  of  malaria.     In  dry  seasons,  when  unus- 
ually low,  the  putridity  of  the  water  of  such  ponds  is  percepi 
sense  of  smell ;  and  it  must  be  then  far  from  harn 

Another,  and  in  certain  situations,  the  greatest  evil  of  mill-ponds,  remains 
to  he  stated.  The  others  above-mentioned  are  the  effects  of  the  scarcity 
of  the  supply  of  water ;  this  ft  from  the  excess,  which  is  found  in  all 
streams,  at  some  times,  even  though  the  most  deficient  at  others. 

To  guard  as  much  as  possible  against  the  expected  scarcity  of  water,  the 
mill-owner  aims  to  hold,  when  rains  increase  the  usual  supply,  as  "full  a 
head"  as  he  has  a  right  to  maintain.  When  this  supply  is  exceeded,  as  it 
frequently  is,  and  greatly,  if  the  dam  be  not  actually  broken,  and  the  whole 


•*.♦ 


CALCAREOUS  MAMK!..-.     APPENDIX  ;;u; 

emptied,  in  one  prodigious  flood,  at  least  the  flood-gates  are  opened  widely, 
and  a  discbarge  mam  ten-fold  greater  than  would  have  occurred  during 
equal  time,  if  the  stream  had  n  rncted  by  a  Dam,  and  had  dis- 

charged as  regularjy  as  the  supply  «  I.     It  will  be  evident,  on 

considering  these  circumstances,  that   water  from  a  mill-pond,  whether 

otl  ei  n  Ise,  must  be  fai  more 
height,  and  In  extent  of  inundation  on  the  land  below,  than  ihe  natural 
stream  unobstructed  by  ail ;  and  still  more  than  the  stream  bpened  and  im- 
proved  and  Its  course  fsjeililated  by  art  An  ordinary  natural  stream,  which 
might  have  a  very  unif  irm  discharge  In  dry  weather,  and  would  rarely  over- 
ilnw  its  hanks  in  wet,  if  dammed  across  for  a  mill,  wi  uld  often  have  11 
below  the  dam  left  almost  dry;  and,  at  rare  and  irregular  times,  would  be 
converted  to  a  trei  iod,  which  would  sweep  over  hundrei 

acres  more  than  the  floods  of  the   natural  stream   could   have   reached. 
nsr-,1  tn  cultivati  d  land  by  these  Hoods,  (and 
which  kind  of  dai  Imated  or  thought  of  by  juries  when 

mills  are  established  above.)  there  are  numerous  hollows  made,  ami  filled 
with  water,  which,  on  the  retn  is  hasty  as  its  inroad,)  re- 

main so  many  stagnant  pools  until  made  dry  by  evaporation.  The  «  hole 
land,  thus  covered,  is  saturated  with  water;  and,  from  the  nature  of  the  rich 
alluvial  soil,  is  throughout,  as  il  dries,  made  a  producer  of  malaria. 

But  the  worst  part  of  this  evil,  by  far,  is  when  these  ods  of 

fresh-waters  pass  over  salt-ma  .ill  the  country  in 

which  the  fresh  and  sail  waters  meet;  and  this  coml in  ol  causes  I  con- 
sider the  i  ienl  producer  of  disease  in  thai  pari  of  the  country,  and 
die  thing  which  ought  mo  j  linsL  According  to 
the  views  before  pi  e  of  fresh  water  over  salt-marshes,  no 
matter  to  what  extent,  is  i  .and  of 

a  particularly  malignant  kind.     The  mill-pond  l  far 

more  extensive,  if  weak-,  ol  the 

two,  the  mill-ponds  exert  all  their  usual  bad  influence  above  the  dams,  and 
spread  ten-fold  more  pestilential  effects  below,  by  inundating  the  wide  salt- 
marshes,  which  by  natural  streams  would  scarcely  have  been  affected. 

On  Nansemond  river  there  are  lands  already  rich,  and  having  inexhausti- 
ble supplies  of  the  best  marl,  which  have  been  sold  re.  There 
are  hundreds  of  estates  in  the  same  heit  of  country  which  cannot  be  sold 
for  as  i  i  cost  and  present  vali i  tl  other- 
wise fine  country,  so  accursed  by  disease,  owes  its  rmcipally  to 
the  mill  streams  which  flow  iters,  and  which  are  so  nume- 
rous, and  their  sources  so  interlocked,  thai  there  is  no  spot  safe,  by  remote- 
ness of  position,  from  these  combined  efli  cts  of  mill-ponds  and  salt-marshes. 
It  is  therefore  sufficiently  evidi  I  otherwise  finest  part  of  the 
state,  for  agricultural  improvement  and  profit,  should  stand  among  the  low- 
est in  both  these  respects.  Ye  I  \  irginia  might  he  rendered  both 
healthful  and  fruitful,  and  the  delightful  region  wh  :h  God  I, a*  permitted  it  to 
be  made,  if  man  would  accept  and  avnil  of  his  bounties  by  merely  using 
half  the  expense  for  improving  which  lias  been  lavished  to  inflict  pestilence 
and  poverty  on  the  country. 

statements  and  expressions  of  opinion  will  be  unpalatable,  if  not 
offensive;  and  perhaps  may  subject  the  writer  t"  the  charge  of  being  witt- 
ing to  injure  the  residents  of  the  regii  relief  in  this  respect  he 
•  anxious,  and  of  tl  I  cheapness  of  obtaining  relief,  by  the 
use  of  proper  means,  he  feels  most  confident.  If  the  exposure  and  probing 
of  the  nicer  be  never  so  painful,  let  it  be  remembered  that  it  is  done  solely 
for  the  purpose  of  seeking  for,  and  applying,  a  sure  remedy. 
33 


-q^  CALCAREOUS  MANURES  -APPENDIX 

There  is  still  another  source  of  malaria,  which  il  is  necessary  to  touch  on 
in  connexion  wilh  the  above-mentioned,  though  it  has  been  already  treated 
more  fully  elsewhere,  and  therefore  "ill  be  but  slightly  mentioned  here* 

From  the  vegetable  matter  upon  the  driest  land,  as  it  ferments  and  de- 
cays, there  must  be  extricated  more  or  less  of  the  gaseous  matter  which, 
when  in  excess,  is  injurious  to  health.  According  to  this  view,  the  whole 
surface  of  the  country,  and  especially  that  most  heavily  covered  with  vege- 
table matter,  may  furnish  malaria.  The  degree  of  hurtfulness  of  this  pro- 
duct will  depend  on  the  power  of  growing  vegetables  to  feed  on,  and  of 
the  soil  to  absorb  and  fix  in  it  this  matter,  which,  according  to  its  direction 
and  quantity,  may  either  enrich  land,  Iced  plants,  or  poison  men.  In  earlier 
publications  1  have  stated  at  large  my  reasons  for  believing  that  all  the 
products  ol  vegetable  decomposition,  on  naturally  poor  lands,  are  lost  to 
the  land  ;f  and  as  the  ultimate  results  of  decomposition  are  gaseout,  «>r 
aeriform,  they  must  go  oft' into  the  air.  These  products  constitute  or  cause 
malaria,  and  its  injurious  effects  on  the  health  of  the  inhabitants.  But  cal- 
careous matter  serves  effectually  to  fix  in  the  soil  the  enriching  principles  of 
decaying  vegetable  matter,  until  they  serve  as  food  for  growing  plants. 
Hence  the  deduction  that  a  naturally  poor  soil,  made  calcareous,  will  no 
longer  throw  oft' gaseous  products,  or  malaria,  into  the  air;  but  will  store  it 
up  as  fertilizing  manure.  The  sure  remedy  for  the  irregular  and  gene- 
rally slight  decree  of  sickliness  thus  caused,  is  to  marl  or  lime  all  the  land 
that  requires  calcareous  earth.  Lint  that  remedy  would  not  be  sufficient,  if 
mill-ponds  or  marshes  in  the  neighborhood  continued  to  send  out  large  ad- 
ditional supplies  of  the  aeriform  poison. f 

The  correctness  of  my  deductions  as  to  the  very  injurious  effects  o{  mill- 
ponds  on  health,  will  be  denied  on  several  grounds,  which,  so  far  as  ex- 
pected, I  will  anticipate  as  objections,  and  state  with  the  answers,  as  fol- 
lows: 

Objection  1. — Admitting  generally,  and  to  some  extent,  the  ill  effects  of 
mill-ponds  in  producing  noxious  exhalations  and  autumnal  diseases,  it  does 
not  appear  that  these  effects  can  be  either  so  great,  or  so  sure,  as  is  charged 
above.  The  residents  on  the  farms  nearest  to  mill-ponds  are  not  always, 
and  often  not  at  all,  more  sickly  than  those  who  reside  several  miles  distant. 
The  house  of  the  slave  who  acts  as  miller,  is  usually  near  the  mill,  and  close 
to  the  pond;  yet  families  so  situated  are  generally  as  health)'  as  any  others, 
and  sometimes  are  healthy  in  a  remarkable  degree,  compared  to  the  neigh- 
borhood generally. 

Answer.  Near  the  mill-dam,  or  the  lower  end  of  the  pond,  may  well  be 
less  affected  by  the  exhalations  from  it,  than  places  a  mile  or  two  more  dis- 
tant. That  part  is  the  deepest  of  the  pond,  and  of  which  also  the  banks 
are  steepest ;  and  perhaps  half  a  mile  in  length  of  the  bottom  of  the  upper 
and  shallowest  part  of  the  pond,  and  of  alluvial  mud,  might  be  left  naked 
in  drought,  before  a  margin  of  steep  hill-side  of  three  feet  width  could  be 
exposed  near  the  mill.  Further — from  the  greater  lightness  of  the  malaria, 
it  will  rise  high  in  the  air,  and  would  soon  be  carried  far  away  by  a  mode- 
rate breeze.  If  the  wind  be  moderate,  and  steady  to  one  direction,  and 
still  more  if  its  course  be  confined  to  an  opening  by  or  between  woods,  or 
to  a  narrow  valley  between  high  hills,  it  may  well  be  imagined  that  the 
poisonous  air  might  injuriously  affect  persons  perhaps  five  miles  from  the 
pond,  and  who  would  not  suspect  the  operation  of  so  distant  a  source; 

*  See  '  Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures,'  3d  ed.,  chapter  xv  ,  and  '  Essay  on  the  Police 
of  Health"  commencing  p.  154.,  vol.  v.,  of  Farmers'  Begister. 
f  Essay  on  Calc.  Man.,  pp.  23,  57  and  89. 


C'ALCARI.OIS    MAM  MUX  3(J3 

while  otliers,  close  to  its  border,  bat  in  a  differonl  direction,  or  on  a  different 
level,  in  its  influence. 

0  -There  is  Dot  enough  difference  in  the  usual  or  average 

-i  exposed,  an  ■       «ed  to 

mill-ponds,  to  am  iiniic  ii  nelgh- 

■  autumns  are  very  healthy,  and  In  others  very  sickly, 

without  either  condition  1   with  any  certain  and 

known  state  of  the  nearest  mill-ponds. 

i        r. — The  extrei  ious  air,  ami  great  and  fre- 

quent variations  in  thei  •.■•winds  on 

.  make  it  get  known  from 

which  particular  pond  or  ]  r  where  it  is  carried.    It 

Is  mosl   probable  that  the  exhalations  of  twenty  ponds,  of  which  the  most 
remote  may  be  thirty  miles  apart,  may  be  mingled  together  by  the  winds 

Further, 
if  all  the  mi  county  furnish  ;  the  active  and  injurious 

malaria,  and  the  other  half  is  I  y,  by  the  whole 

surface  of  the  land,  (though  some  puts  wo  doses, 

and  others  escape  with  having  it  would  be  impossible 

tn  understand  the  mode,  and  i  intensity  ol  i  n  ol   the 

kno.i  :  ,r  to  refer,  wil  i  ce  I  to  its 

us,  a  farm  1 1  i  all  malaria  of  Its 

own   product,  by  i  I  by  drying  its  mill-pond,  thofagh  evidently 

showing  the  beneiit  iii  i  i  be  sorely 

visited  i  y  the  seeds  of  dis  ted  and 

trated  by  a  steady  wind. 

II  iving  p  esented  these  views  of  the  origin,  action  and  effects  of  malaria 
in   this  country,  I    can    better   i  es   which   I 

belie-..-  i  I,  and  winch  .ne  still  continuing  to  ope, ate,  to  pro- 

e  change  from  a  healthy  to  an  un 

When  our  ancestors  Grst  reached  this  shore,  whole  country 

was  m  a  state  ul  nature  I    n  bul  a  few 

fertile  spots  on  the  banks  land  was 

under  one  great  forest      Tl  had  not  been  obstructed  by  the  cutting 

down  of  tret  eir  beds,  (by  which  in  many  cased  streams  have 

ended.)    No 
dams  had  obstructed  the  I  i,  and  there- 

fore i.o  great  artificial  floods   were  formed,     The  soil   not   having  been 
cultivate, i,  was  not  exp  ised  to  be  washe  I  away  by  the  ra  i  ivers. 

The  clear,  instead  o|   being   generally 

mudd .  'I.      In  this  former 

state  of  thihgs  there  could  ha vi  I  lew  sources  of  malaria, 

ation  "i  sot  i  making 

pond-  >  e  yet  few  iii  number,  the  con- 

strue je  the  best  and  most  unl  (is;  and  the 

',  a  long  time,  surrounded  by  dense  and  tall  forests.    Such 
hilly  land  as  the  margins  of  the  ponds  would  certainly  n  1 1  into 

cult i\  Iter,  and  easier  to  till,  remained 

unoccupied.     Hence,  such  ponds  produ  ed    til  Ii  ■.  I  tliat  little 

was  warded  off  from  the  settlers,  or  taken  up  by  the  forest  growth.    The 
general  wooded  state  of  the  •        I  enderad  the 

supplies  of  water  more  regular,  and   .  .  which 

woull  usual  now.  tl  e  levels  of  the  ponds. 

The  clearing,  cultivation,  and  i  Is  of  the 

upper  country,  greatly   increased  the  muddineas,  and  quantity  of  alluvial 


304 


CALCAREOUS   MANURES -APPENDIX. 


deposite  of  the  rivers,  and  thereby  increased  the  marshes  both  in  breadth 
and  in  height.  More  mills  continued  to  be  built,  and  on  streams  worse 
and  worse  for  water  power,  as  the  choice  became  less  open,  and  the  mill- 
mania-  began  to  grow ;  and,  in  the  general,  each  successive  construction  of 
a  pond  was  less  productive  of  profit,  and  more  productive  of  disease,  than 
its  predecessors.  The  number  of  mills  not  only  continued  to  increase,  and 
is  increasing  to  this  day,  and  in  the  oldest  settled  parts  of  this  state,  as  well 
as  the  newest,  but  gradual  changes  also  took  place  in  the  condition  of  the 
old  mills  which  greatly  increased  their  fitness  to  produce  disease.  By  the 
long  continued  deposite  of  mud  from  the  streams,  and  the  washing  of  the 
now  cleared  and  tilled  hill-sides,  the  ponds  became  more  shallow,  and  the 
waste  of  water  by  evaporation  therefore  became  greater  ;  while  the  supply 
was  lessened,  in  consequence  of  the  extended  clearings  of  the  great  forest 
which  had  before  covered  the  whole  country.  To  remedy  the  increasing 
deficiency  of  water,  the  owners  of  old  mills,  who  were  not  prohibited  by 
circumstances,  raised  the  level  of  their  ponds ;  which,  by  increasing  their 
surface  and  their  contents,  still  more  increased  the  daily  evaporation,  and 
also  the  violence  of  floods,  and  the  variable  height  and  surface  of  the  water  ; 
all  of  which  again  combined  to  increase,  still  more  than  before,  the  product 
of  malaria.  The  consideration  of  the  progress  of  all  these  circumstances, 
and  their  bearing  on  each  other,  will  serve  to  explain  why  a  particular 
neighborhood  might  formerly  have  been  healthy,  though  having  two  or 
three  mill-ponds  within  or  around  it;  and  why  it  might  gradually  have  be- 
come very  unhealthy,  in  the  course  of  time,  by  the  malaria  produced  by 
the  ponds  of  the  same  mills,  or  perhaps  bj'  the  addition  of  one  more  pond 
only  to  the  former  number.  But,  in  such  cases,  so  gradual  would  be  the 
general  chanee,  and  so  irregular  and  variable  the  attacks  and  virulence  of 
the  autumnal  diseases,  that  the  sufferers  would  not  attribute  the  change, 
(even  if  the}'  admitted  it  to  have  taken  place,)  in  their  average  degree  of 
health,  to  causes  which  had  so  long  existed  without  being  charged  with 
doing  mischief;  and  in  which  causes  no  change  of  condition  had  been 
observed.  Add  to  this,  that  self-love  makes  every  man  reluctant  to  believe, 
and  to  confess,  that  his  own  farm,  or  his  own  neighborhood,  has  become 
more  sickly ;  and  the  change  for  the  worse  is  attributed  to  transient  causes, 
until  the  former  state  of  things  is  almost  forgotten,  and  the  present  is  re- 
ceived as  if  it  had  always  been  the  usual  condition  of  circumstances. 

Durinsrall  this  time,  other  causes  were  working  to  produce  other  nurse- 
ries of  disease,  and  impediments  to  agricultural  products  and  improvement. 
The  wet  alluvial  bottom-lands,  bordering  on  small  rivers  and  still  smaller 
streams,  were  for  a  long  time  neglected,  and  deemed  of  little  value,  except 
for  their  fine  white-oak,  cypress,  and  other  noble  timber  trees.  These  were 
cut  down  so  as  to  fall  into  or  across  the  streams,  when  in  reach,  more  often 
than  otherwise;  and  in  consequence  of  such  obstructions,  continually  in- 
creased in  number  for  more  than  a  century,  the  before  open  streams  were 
choked,  and  the  bordering  low-grounds  converted  to  swamps;  and  those 
which  had  been  swampy  at  first  were  made  still  more  so,  by  obstructing 
the  sluggish  streams,  and  spreading  them  over  the  whole  surface,  and 
causing  that  surface  continually  to  rise  by  fallen  trees  and  alluvium.  But 
wet  as  are  such  swamps  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  most  of  the  surface 
is  dry  in  autumn ;  and  the  scanty  water  is  then  stagnant  in  numerous  pools, 
until  added  to  by  the  first  heavy  rain,  or  a  flood  from  a  mill-pond  discharged 
above.  Of  course  all  these  circumstances  added  enormously  to  the  pre- 
vious annual  decomposition  of  vegetable  matter,  and  consequent  production 
of  malaria.  Such  swamps  as  these,  formed  by  nature  and  increased  by 
art,  are  those  on  the  Chickahominy,  Blackwater,  and  many  other  long  but 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES-" APPENDIX  305 

gentle  streams.  To  form  or  increase  their  evil  qualities  and  tendencies,  the 
law  has  given  full  permission,  and  no  small  aid;  but  it  positively,  though 
indirectly,  forbid*  th  teqsive  swamps, and  preKrvea 

them  stiil  as  mere  nurseries  of  disease.     A  general  law  for  permitting  and 
facilitating,  under  proper  regulations,  the  draining  of  these  great  swamps, 
ire  which  won  .  iii  it  only  for  improving 

the  healthiness,  but  for  increasing  the  agricultural  products  of  the  country. 

But  though  the  tendency  of  the  general  changes  in  the  physical  condition 
of  the  country  was  to  increase  the  causes  of  autumnal  diseases,  there 
were  numerous  particular  exceptions,  in  works  serving  to  promote  health. 
ci' this  kind  were  the  opening  and  straightening  of  the  choked  channels 
of  small  rivers,  and  many  large  streams,  in  the  hilly  country,  where  there 
was  enough  descent  to  enable  each  individual  proprietor  of  flooded  low- 
ground  tu  relieve  it  by  operations  confined  to  his  own  land.  The  effectual 
drainage  of  much  land  of  this  kind  has  produced  so  much  benefit  to  health 
as  in  many  cases  to  balance  and  even  exceed  the  increasing  pestiferous 
effects  of  the  neighboring  mill-ponds.  Such  facts  would  be  taken  by  most 
persons  as  proofs  that  the  increase  of  mill-ponds  had  not  increased  disease. 
Such  benefits  have  been  produced  by  the  gradual  draining  of  the  ex- 
tensive low-ground  of  Gloucester,  which  in  its  former  and  natural  swampy 
state  must  necessarily  have  been  an  abundant  source  of  malaria.  This 
chance,  together  with  other  circumstances  stated  in  the  recent  description 
of  that  part  of  the  country,  has  operated  to  render  the  Gloucester  as  free 
from  bilious  disorders  as  any  part  of  the  tide-water  region — save  the  ad- 
joining county  of  Matthews.*  The  remarkable  general  state  of  healthiness 
of  all  these  very  low  lands  at  present,  as  well  as  the  exceptions  and  evident 
causes  of  the  exceptions,  furnish  the  most  clear  and  important  evidence  of 
the  truth  of  the  position,  that  mill-ponds  and  floods  of  fresh-water  discharged 
over  salt-marshes  are  the  great  sources  of  malaria  in  Virginia.  As  stated 
formerly,!  there  are  but  few  fresh-water  streams  discharged  on  salt-marshes 
in  these  two  counties,  and  not  a  pond-mill  on  the  low-grounds,  nor  indeed 
in  the  whole  county  of  Matthews,  save  one  on  its  border  nearest  the  high- 
land. The  facts  presented  here  alone  will  prove  the  great  and  certain 
benefit  to  be  obtained  by  even  a  partial  and  imperfect  avoidance  of  the 
action,  separate  and  combined,  of  these  two  greatest  sources  of  malaria. 

But  although  the  general  and  average  degree  of  sickness  may  have  been, 
and  certainly  is,  much  lessened  of  late  years  by  the  better  drainage  of  very 
many  of  the  smaller  swamps — the  introduction  and  increase  of  more  perfect 
tillage,  which  includes  better  drainage  of  arable  land — and,  still  more  by 
far,  by  the  now  extensive  applications  of  marl  and  lime — yet  it  would  be  a 
great  and  dangerous  error  thence  to  infer  that  the  mill-ponds  and  the  still 
remaining  irreclaimable  swamps  had  become  less  injurious  to  health.  Their 
malignant  effects  are  not  only  not  lessened  in  the  slightest  degree,  but  must 
continue  to  increase  with  time,  as  long  as  the  present  destructive  legal 
policy  of  Virginia  remains.  The  crowing  beneficial  operation  of  the  other 
and  opposite  influences,  have  indeed  served  to  neutralize,  counteract,  and 
even  (in  the  most  thoroughly  marled  districts)  to  greatly  overbalance  the 
continually  increasing  disease-producing  operation  of  the  mill-ponds  and 
swamps ;  but  not  to  prevent  its  existence  or  power.  The  greatly  beneficial 
operation  of  calcareous  manures  especially  in  improving  health,  (which 
operation  has  been  so  fully  treated  of  in  preceding  parts  of  this  work  as 

•  S<"e  the  facts  ami  reasons  stated  more  fully  at  p,  179  and  190,  in  vol.  vi.  of  Farmers' 
it-ei^er 

t  The  same  p.  190. 


306  CALCAREOUS   MANURES— APPENDIX. 

to  be  unnecessary  to  enlarge  more  upon  here — )  instead  of  blinding  us  to 
tiie  unabated  though  more  concealed  effects  of  remaining  sources  of  malaria, 
should  urge  the  more  strongly,  and  encourage  every  effort,  to  destroy  all 
such  sources.  For  if  the  mere  counteraction  of  opposite  influences  has 
so  much  improved  the  healthiness  of  a  large  portion  of  lower  Virginia,  it 
may  be  safely  inferred,  that  the  removal  of  the  remaining  sources  of  disease, 
and  leaving  the  beneficial  influences  to  operate  freely  and  absolutely,  in- 
stead of  merely  by  counteraction,  would  serve  to  make  this  region  as 
healthy,  in  general,  as  any  part  of  our  whole  country." 

The  most  important  part  of  this  subject  is  the  consideration  of  the  reme- 
dies for  the  evils  described.  But  although  the  means  available  for  this  end 
in  my  opinion  are  ready,  cheap,  and  sure,  still  it  is  needless  at  present  to 
argue  in  their  favor  at  great  length.  Unless  the  people  are  aroused  to  a 
proper  sense  of  the  evils  under  which  the  country  suffers,  no  regard  will 
be  paid  to  the  consideration  of  proper  remedies ;  and  if  the  former  object 
can  be  gained,  the  latter  will  then  necessarily  1" 

The  most  important  of  these  remedies,  and  of  which  the  proper  use,  I 
maintain,  will  remove  nearly  all  the  existing  sources  of  malaria,  and  make 
lower  and  middle  Virginia  healthy,  will  be  merely  here  stated  concisely  and 
distinctly. 

1st.  To  prevent  the  continuance  of  any  mill-ponds  of  very  uncertain 
supply,  and  variable  "head,"  or  height  of  water. 

2d.  To  furnish  to  the  land-floods,  of  streams  swollen  by  rains  or  by  any 
mill-ponds  still  left,  the  quickest  and  best  possible  discharge  to  tide-water 
by  open  canals,  so  as  to  prevent  the  fresh-waters  passing  over  any  salt- 
marshes. 

3d.  To  drain  the  great  flat  swamps;  all  of  which  require  a  continued 
•canal  to  be  extended  from  the  lowest  outdet  up  to  the  head  of  the  supply 
of  water,  in  the  most  effective  course,  and  on  a  general  plan,  through  the 
lands  of  many  different  proprietors.  The  drainage  of  lands  so  s.tuated  is 
effectually  forbidden  by  the  existing  laws ;  as  there  is  no  power  to  act, 
unless  all  the  proprietors  concur  in  every  particular  of  the  execution  and 
expense  of  the  drainage;  which  is  obviously  impossible. 

4th.  To  refrain  from  embanking  from  the  tide  any  marshes  of  the  usual 
putrescent  and  perishable  soil. 

5th.  To  apply  marl  or  lime  to  all  lands  needing  calcareous  manures,  and 
on  which  they  can  be  furnished  at  not  too  great  cost  for  even  such  great 
improvement  of  soil  and  product  as  would  certainly  be  obtained  in  all  such 
cases. 

The  two  last  means  of  prevention  are  altogether  within  the  power  of 
individuals,  and  will  be  used,  or  not,  according  to  the  views  of  different  in- 
dividuals as  to  the  agricultural  profit  to  be  expected  from  such  operations. 

The  three  first-named  means  of  remedy  would  each  require  the  action  of 
the  legislature,  to  enable  them  to  be  used  to  any  considerable  extent. 

The  necessity  for  a  general  plan  being  authorized  by  law  for  inducing 
and  compel  I  1  operations  to  drain  swamps  on  long  and  sluggish 

streams,  though  merely  for  agricultural  improvement  and  profit,  is  already 
evident  to  most  intelligent  farmers;  and  perhaps  nothing  is  now  wanting  to 
procure  such  lesislation  but  the  proper  exertion  of  some  of  the  individuals 
who  are  most  interested  on  the  subject.! 

The  giving  free  vent  to  land-floods,  also,  by  wide  and  straight  canals,  and 

"  Thi«  paragraph  is  an  addition  to  this  article,  as  it  was  first  published  in  1S3S.  The 
only  other  changes  made,  are  the  correction  of  a  few  verbal  inaccuracies,  and  the  marks  of 
references  to  this  Essay  being  made  to  suit  the  present  insiead  of  the  previous  edition 

1  See  Farmers'  Register,  vol.  i.,  pp.  232.  386,  518,  733,  734. 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES     APPENDIX.  ;j(jy 

preventing  them,  by  dikes,  from  overflowing  the  sail  marshes,  though  a  kind 
of  work  requiring  public  money  as  «vi  ority,  still  may  be 

hoped  for, « hen  thi  -  the  measui  i  .  ident 

But  there  hi  no  such  prospect  pf  succi  ss  as  to  the  most  important  reform 
needed,  in  the  putting  down  of  all  fever-breeding  mill-ponds;  and  he  who 
will  ventura  to  adi  I,  by  most  of 

those  whom  he  aims  to  serve,  as  more  an  enemy  tl  an  a  friend  to  their  inte- 
rests, and  more  desei  ving  to  be  treated  as  a  lunatii 

a  ju.lu'iiius  ad\  ocata.  for  valuable  publii  ot  in  the  vain 

hope  of  new  enl  irein  :  i  expla- 

nations, and  then  pointy 

that  -.nine  further  remarks  will  now  be  offered. 

Even  If  the  p  id  ha  I  I n  prepared  for  a  full  li  I   in  of 

the  policy  of  mill-p  inds,  and  for  the  laying  d 

health,  there  would  benoaccon  ecessity  for  injuring  the  private 
interests  of  mill-owners,  nor  of  causing  man  rial  loss  or  incoi 
the  customers  of  the  mills.  In  the  first  place,  in  Justice  to  the  vested  rights 
of  the  millers,  (however  unjust  to  01  to  the  public  may 
have  been  the  original  creation  of  their  rights,)  I  would  advocate  full  com- 
pensation being  made  for  every  sacrifice  of  value  in  their  ponds,  which 
should  be  required  and  compelled  for  the  general  benefit.  But  not  more 
than  full  compensation  lor  all  value  thus  destroyed  should  be  '..'ranted;  and 
many  of  the  fever-breeding  ponds  are  really  of  no  pecuniary  value  to  their 
owners  or  to  the  public;  and  most  others  may,  to  reater  a  I  Vantage,  be 
supplied  with  water  by  canals,  instead  ol  !■■  Even  if  one-third  of 
all  the  mills  should  be  thus  put  down  entirely,  thi  ie  would  be  such  as  now 
always  fail  in  dry  seasons;  and  the  more  permanent  and  regular  supplies  of 
water,  which  all  the  remaining  mills  would  receive  from  the  canals  substi- 
tuted foi  ponds,  would  rendei  i  furnish  the  whole  country  with 
meal,  with  regularity,  cert  linty,  and  in  abundance,  and  therefore  more  suit- 
ably and  conveniently  to  the  consumers,  than  oil  the  mills,  ■: I  and  bad, 

now  in  operation.  By  an  important  innovation  in  the  law  in  regard  to 
mills,  (enacted  March  2d,  18260  every  owner  of  a  mill  is  authorized  to  cut 
a  canal  through  the  lands  of  other  persons,  if  required  by  the  nature  of  the 
locality,  so  as  to  substitute  the  pond  by  a  canal.  Before  this  amendment  of 
the  old  law,  no  mill-owner  could  provement,  unless  in  the 

rare  case  of  his  own  land  esfending  under  the  whole  c  iurse  of  the  desired 
canal.    The  privileges  offered  by  this  new  provision  have 
availed  of  in  many  cases,  in  Charlotte  and  the  neighboring  counties,  and  to 
great  advantage  in  regard  to  health  as  well  as  to  increased  power  to  the 
mills,  and  with  great  value  gained  in  the  rich  drain  of  the  ponds 

beingput  under  cultivation.  Slowly  as  such  lessons  are  usually  learned, and 
slowly  as  new  agricultural  improvements  are  brought  into  extended  use, 
this  highly  beneficial  and  profitable  improvement  cannot  fail  to  be  Adopted 
generally  in  the  course  of  time*    The  I  Ie  to  the  early  and  gene- 

ral substitution  of  canals  for  ponds,  wherever  I  .  ;^  the 

absurd  legal  distribution  of  rights  in  the  mill-ponds  and  the  land  which  they 
cover,  as  stated  on  a  preceding  page;  one  person  being  vested  with  the 
perpetual  riuht  to  keep  the  land  overflowed  and  worthless,  while  others 
have  the  right  of  property  in  that  land,  to  be  exercised  only  in  the  never- 
expected  event  of  the  owner  of  the  pond  drawing  it  off  and  draining  the 
rich  bottom,  and  that  for  the  gain  of  others  more  than  himself     Now  I 

*  See  facts  and  statements  on  this  subject  at  p.  231,  vol.  v.,  Farmers'  Register,  pp.  1 
to  >.  ;  p.  679,  vol.  ii.  ;  p   874,  vol.  It. 


308  CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX 

would  get  rid  of  this  absurd  conflict  of  rights,  by  vesting  the  full  property  of 
the  land  covered  in  every  mill-owner  who  would  draw  off  the  pond ;  or 
if  he  did  not  avail  of  the  privilege  offered,  the  land  should  be  given  up  to 
its  former  owners,  or  to  any  one  else,  who  would  construct  a  canal,  and 
thereby  secure  to  the  use  of  the  mill  an  equally  good  supply  of  water-power. 

Each  of  the  several  remedies  proposed  and  stated  above  would  alone 
furnish  a  fruitful  subject  for  investigation  and  discussion.  But  more  ex- 
tended remark  from  this  source  is  as  yet  uncalled  for.  Other  persons, 
having  better  practical  information,  and  thereby  prepared  to  confirm  or  to 
disprove  the  positions  here  assumed,  are  invited  to  aid  in  the  discussion. 
Let  the  truth  be  made  known,  on  whichever  side  it  may  be  found  ;  and 
shoulJ  all  facts  and  deductions  presented  serve  to  show  that  the  present  sys- 
tem greatly  needs  reformation,  ami  to  awaken  the  public  to  the  importance 
of  the  object,  then  will  be  the  suitable  and  propitious  time  to  ask  attention 
to  remedies  proposed  for  the  then  acknowledged  evils,  inflicted  by  the  ac- 
tion or  permission  of  the  government.  Whenever  the  legislature  is  prepared  to 
act  decisively  on  this  whole  question,  there  will  be  before  them  a  subject  for 
the  "internal  improvement"  of  Virginia  far  more  important  in  beneficial  re- 
sults than  the  roads  and  canals  which  have  cost  millions  of  dollars  to  the 
treasury;  and  yet  which  will  be  cheaper,  compared  to  the  profit  to  be  cer- 
tainly counted  on,  than  the  most  humble  or  contemptible  job  for  private 
objects,  which  has  yet  been  carried  through  by  public  expenditure,  and  as 
a  public  improvement. 

But  even  under  the  existing  law,  any  single  individual  who  clearly  sus- 
tains injury  to  health  from  any  particular  mill-pond,  has  now  the  legal 
power  to  have  that  particular  nuisance  abated,  by  means  of  suit  for  da- 
mages f< >r  the  injury  thereby  sustained.  It  has  been  judicially  settled  that 
such  ground  of  suit  for  damages  is  not  prevented  by  any  previous  assess- 
ment by  the  first  jury,  nor  by  any  lapse  of  time  during  which  the  mill  has 
been  standing;  nor  is  the  ground  removed  by  the  new  damages  awarded 
for  injury  already  sustained  and  sued  for.  No  matter  how  often  damages 
may  have  been  given  to  the  plaintiff  by  successive  verdicts,  and  paid  by 
the  defendant,  there  will  continue  ground  to  sue,  and  recover,  as  long  as  the 
pond  remains,  and  is  hurtful.  It  is  surprising  that  the  law,  so  favorable  to 
the  interests  of  mill-owners,  and  regardless  of  all  conflicting  interests  and 
rights  of  other  persons,  should  have  permitted,  in  this  particular,  so  much  of 
remedy  for  the  previous  injustice  and  injury  inflicted  by  the  law.  And  it  is 
still  more  surprising  after  legal  decisions  have  so  clearly  shown  the 
remedy,  that,  of  so  many  thousands  of  individuals  who  are  unquestionably 
suffering  every  autumn  from  the  neighborhood  of  stagnant  miil-ponds,  so 
few  should  have  availed  themselves  of  the  offered  means  of  relief. 

If  the  importance  of  this  general  subject  were  duly  appreciated,  its  in- 
vestigation would  become  an  object  of  the  care,  and  be  conducted  at  the  ex- 
pense of  government.  If  the  legislature  of  Virginia  (for  example)  would 
institute  a  "General  Board  of  "ealth,"  or  '-Commission  of  Sanitary  Police," 
for  the  purpose  of  investigating  the  subject  of  malaria  thoroughly,  and  of 
reporting  the  sources  and  proper  remedies,  the  body  of  evidence  which 
would  be  collected,  and  the  after-results,  might  be  made  worth  many  mil- 
lions of  increased  pecuniary  value  to  the  state,  besides  the  far  greater 
benefit  to  be  produced  to  the  health,  the  physical  and  moral  qualities,  and 
the  general  happiness  of  the  people.  At  any  possible  cost  of  such  an  in- 
vestigation, and  of  the  system  of  measures  founded  thereon,  the  public 
improvement  and  benefit  produced  thereby  would  exceed  the  expenses  a 
hundred-fold. 


C  sXCAJtEOUB  MANURES— APPEMMX. 


309 


Xote  X — Extension  of  subject  from  page  150. 

A  MACHINE  I'ROI'OSED  TOR  RAISING  MAUL. 

The  machine  which  will  be  described  below  is  used  at  Fortress  Monroe 
for  raising  sand  from  the  fosse  to  fill  the  ramparts;  and  has  been  found  by 
experience  to  be  the  best  contrivance  of  ;ill  which  have  been  tried  for 
iperation,  and  for  which  an  immense  amount  of  labor  was  necessary 
in  constructing  the  defences  ol  the  fortress.  Precisely  the  same  manner  of 
operation  is  required  for  raising  marl  from  deep  pits,  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  el  this  beta  '  than  any 

heretofore  applied.     Tl  e  Ms  the  Weight  of  the  laborers,  on  the 

principle  of  the  tread-mill,  which  is  the  most  effective  manner  in  which  the 
power  of  men  can  be  applied.  1  am  indebted  for  the  suggestion  of  this 
machine  for  raising  marl  to  the  observation  and  scientific  knowledge  of 
mechanics  of  my  friend  M.  Tnomey,  and  also  for  the  following  description 
and  the  drawings  ived  figures.  Mr.  Tnomey,  when  making  a 

transient  visit  to  the,  fortress,  bad  seen  the  machine  at  work;  and  recently, 
after  reading  in  the  foregoing  part  of  this  work  the  remarks  on  the  differ- 
ent modes  of  raising  mail,  and  having  witnessed  some  of  the  usual  modes 
in  practice,  this  machine  and  what  he  had  seen  of  its  power  appeared 
greatly  superior,  whenever  circumstances  may  require  any  use  of  ma- 
chinery. Upon  being  thus  informed,  1  applied  to  Dr.  Robert  Archer,  I". 
S.  A.  Surgeon  at  Fortress  Monroe,  I  agri- 

cultural public,  have  been  frequently  and  much  indebted,)  for  a  rough  plan, 
and  accurate  statement  of  the  dimensions  of  the  machine,  1)  itTl  of  which 
he  kindly  famished;  and  with  the  aid  of  these,  Mr.  Tuon  ena- 

bled to  give  such  particular  description  and  correct  delineat 
serve  for  full  instruction  for  the  building  and  working  of  the  machine. 


"^Figure  1  is  a  side  view,  in  persp 

'.  WThe  base,  consisting  of  3  pieces  of  scantling,  each  12  feet  lone,  and  11  inches  by  6, 
notched  on  to  each  other  about  6  inche9  from  the  end,  so  as  to  be  flush  on  top,  form- 
ing- an  equilateral  triangle. 

e.  The  principal  post  8  feet,  8  by  6  inches,  secured  to  the  base,  and  braced  by  the 
braces  f.  IVear  the  top  of  this  post  2  iron  sheeves  or  pulleys  are  placed,  one  on  each 
side,  and  secured  by  pieces  spiked  over  them.     The  chains  pass  over  these  pulleys. 

/,  2  braces  11  feet  long,  4  inches  by  G. 

h,  h.  Two  uprights,  in  which  the  gudgeons  of  the  wheel  turn,  th*y  are  bolted  to  the  base 
and  connected  at  top  by  the  piece  g,  10  feet  6  inches  long,  -1$  by  6  inches,  which  also 
serves  as  a  hand  rail  for  the  men  to  steady  by  when  working  on  the  wheel  Tbest 
39 


310 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX 


uprights  are  further  secured  by  cross  pieces  connected  with  the  braces,  and  bearinj  in 
front  aDd  rear  of  the  wheel  two  steps  on  which  the  men  stand  as  they  go  on  or  off  the 
wheel. 

«•.  The  wheel  4  feet  in  diameter,  the  steps  3 J  feet  long  8  inches  wide,  made  of  1J  inch 
plank.  The  ends  of  the  wheels  are  formed  of  two  thicknesses  of  inch  plank  placed 
crosswise,  the  inside  being  grooved  to  receive  the  steps  which  are  placed  about  8 
inches  apart.  The  axle  ot  the  wheel  is  10  feet  G  inches  long  and  8  inches  in  diameter, 
the  portion  around  which  the  chain  winds  is  enlarged,  so  as  to  suit  the  force  employed 
on  the  wheel,  or  the  weight  to  be  raised,  by  nailing  on  strips  of  plank,  over  which  a 
few  turns  of  old  rope  may  be  placed  to  prevent  the  slipping  of  the  chain. 

To  prevent  confusion,  only  one  crane  (or  arm)  is  represented  in  this  figure. 

The  crane  post  is  represented  as  turning  on  two  iron  pivots  in  pieces  s,  s,  one  bolted  to 
the  principal  post  e,  and  the  other  spiked  to  the  base.  The  crane  post  is  6  inches 
square. 

a.  The  crane  jib,  7  feet  6  inches  long  G  by  7  inches. 

b.  The  strut  to  the  jib,  8  feet  6  inches  long  4  by  6  inches.  Near  the  extremity  of  the 
jib  an  iron  sheeve  is  fixed  over  which  the  chain  p: 

c.  Is  a  three-quarter  inch  rod  of  iron  secured  to  a  by  means  of  a  staple,  and  having  a 
hook  at  the  other  end  which  drops  into  a  staple  at  i.  This  rod  serves  the  double  pur- 
pose of  a  stay  and  a  guide,  by  which  (when  unhooked,)  the  arm  is  drawn  to  one  side 
for  the  purpose  of  landing  the  box.  When  fixed,  as  represented  in  the  drawing,  it 
serves  to  retain  the  crane  in  its  proper  position.  When  the  box  is  raised  the  rod  is 
unbooked,  and  by  means  of  it  the  box  is  landed. 


rig  2 


rijure  2  is  a  front  view, showing  the  relative  position  of  the  crane?,  which  are  repre- 
sented as  turned  aside.  The  chain  is  seen  winding  around  the  axle.  It  is  evident 
that  the  men  must  pass  to  the  opposiv  eel  as  each  box  is  drawn  up. 

i,j.  Represent  2  views  of  the  boxes,  which  are  square  and  may  be  each  about  21  inches 
every  way,  they  will  then  contain  nearly  6  cubic  leet  each.  They  are  suspended  by 
two  pins  placed  a  little  below  and  to  one  side  of  the  centre  so  as  to  turn  over  and 
empty  themselves  when  a  small  iron  pin  seen  at j,  figure  2,  is  withdrawn.  Three 
men  can  be  employed  to  advant.r  I,  two  remaining  on  whlUt  ihe  third 

gets  oil' to  land  the  box.  Should  the  box  not  be  heavy  enough  the  diameter  ot  the 
axle  can  be  enlarged  so  as  to  make  up  in  time  wl  jht.    Should  it  be  too 

heavy  for  the  force  employed  the  diameter  may  be  lessened." 

The  above  dimensions  of  timbers  were  those  of  the  particular  machine 
measured  by  Dr.  Archer;  but  they  vary  in  all  the  machines  of  this  kind 
used  at  the  fortress.  The  length  of  the  arms  of  course  should  be  propor- 
tioned to  the  height  to  which  the  loaded  buckets  are  to  be  raised.  For 
marl,  any  sized  timbers  on  hand,  or  logs,  that  are  long  enough,  would  serve 
for  the  base  (;',  ?'.)    It  is  however  desirable  that  the  machine  should  be  as 


CALCAREOUS  MANURES— APPENDIX.  3]] 

light  ;is  Is  consistent  with  strength  fi>r  the  greater  facility  of  moving  it; 
anil  li>r  strength  alone,  (as  in  all  other  machines,)  the  lai 
Is  of  less  importance  than  their  being  well  pul  d  nar- 

row planks,  firmly  spike.;  I  with  a  space  lefl 

size  for  the  Bheeve  to  play  in  at  the  upper  end,  would  be 
tute  for  the  jib  a.    When  carts  are  removing  the  marl  at  the  san  e  time  it 
is  raised,  there  WOl 

such  size  as  to  he  emptied  into  the  earls,  and  the  measure  or  load  of  both  ' 
being  made  the  same. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Preface  to  first  trillion 
Preface  to  second  ediuor 
Preface  to  third  edition 


PART  FIRST-THEORY. 
Chapter  I. —  General  description  of  earths  and  soils. 

The  necessity  for  distinguishing  etch,  13.  Description  of  sUfclOU,  aluminous  nnd  calcareous  earths,  13. 
Guide  to  the  chemical  nomenclature  of  neutral  lalu,  1 1  Re  ins  foi  confining  the  term  "  calcareous 
earth"  to  carbonate  of  lime,  II.  Mafneala.16.  Bolls  ere  formed  by  mixtures  of  earths,  16.  Inaccu- 
racy of  ordmaiy  detiniin-u-t  of  soils,  17.     Plan  of  nomenclature  ofaoUfl  proposed,  18. 

Chapter  II.— On  the  soils  and  state  of  agriculture  of  the  tide-water  district  of 

Virginia. 

General  features  of  the  district,  and  character  of  its  soils,  19.  Ridges,  19.  Slopes,  20.  River  hanka 
and  alluvial  lands,  20.  Destructive  Ullage,  20.  Products,  21.  Slavery  in  connexion  With  the  general 
system  of  ftgrlCOltC 

Chapter  III. —  The  different  capacities  of  soils  for  receiving  improvement. 

First  principal  propositi!.:;-  i  -ion,  21.  Natural  M    ]'■  rmancney  of  either 

laroli  .1  naturally  poor'not  capa- 

bafnsj  enriched  by  putrescent  manoi  ,  90,  27.    Kvi- 

dem  .  The  degree  of  original  Icrtility  Is  the  limit  of  profitable  improvement  by  putres- 

cent mnm- 

Chapter  IV.— Effects  of  the  presence  of  calcareous  earth  in  soils. 

Calcareous  earth  not  found  in  poor  soils,  30.  Its  presence  alwnys  accompanied  by  great  fertility,  30. 
Exceptions  in  soils  overcharged,  .'ll.  Authors  have  erroneously  taugbl  that  calcareous  soil*  were  ge- 
ueral,  31.    Evidences  of  such  opinion.*,  32,  33.     Erroneous  us  to  Virginia,  34. 

Chapter  V. — Results  of  the  chemical  examination  of  various  soils. 

Different  mod^s  of  finding  calcareous  earth  in  soil?,  or  to  show  it-*  absence,  3."..  Davy's  pneumatic  appa- 
ratus and  its  operation  described,  30.  Proportions  of  calcareous  earth  in  sundry  species  of  rich  soils, 
37.    Calcareous  soils  fertile,  and  poor  soils  not  calcareous,  ..-.  and  i  ran  hmc-stone 

soils  contain  no  carbonate  of  lime,  39. 

Chapter  VI. —  Chemical  examination  of  rich  soils  containing  no  carbonate  of  lime. 

Rich  river  lands,  40.  Limestone  soils,  40.  41.  Soils  from  Pennsylvania  and  West  York,  11.  Prairie 
soils  ot  Alabama  generally  highly  i 

Qiapler  VII. — Proofs  of  the  existence  of  acid  and  neutral  soils. 

Lime  in  some  form  present  in  even  Mfl.  1 1.  Arid  not  considered  an  Ingredient  of  soil  by  any  writer  of 
authority,  and  denied  by  others.  1 1.   Proofs  of  the  existence  of  acid  it  I  plants, 

46.   Nourished  best  by  dead  acid  plants,  40.    By  other  potreeoani  manor  nous  to 

cultivated  planus,  43.  Disappearance  of  carbonate  of  lime  In  setts,  and  their  becoming  neutral,  48. 
All  wood  allies  contain  carbonate  of  Ihns,  S3.  The  recent  discovery  ol  bumic  add  hi  soils,  S3.  De- 
duction-, o6.  Supposed  gradual  and  natural  changes  of  sous  Iron  calcareous  to  neutral,  and  next  to 
acid,  :o. 

Chapter  VIII — The  mode  of  operation   by  which  calcareous  earth  increases  the 
fertility  and  productivejiess  of  soils. 

Silicious  and  aluminous  earths  have  no  rhemie&l  power  to  retain  putrescent  manure,  56.  Calcareous 
earth  has  such  power  and  how,  59.  fertilizing  power  eiertcd  in  neutralizing  acid,  61.  And  in  alter- 
ing the  ifcxture  and  absorbency  of  toils,  CJ. 


3^4  CALCARRO0B  MANURES— rONTENTS. 

Chapter  JX. —  Action  of  caustic  lime  as  manure.     Classification  of  manures. 
I  -,. 

Davy's  theory  of  liming  slated,  64.    Applied'tcTpractice,  65-    Actioa  injurious  on  soils  generally,  65 
Plan  of  cias'sincation  of  inaau.  i    . 


PART  SECOND— PRACTICE. 
Chapter  I. — Introductory  and  general  observations  on  marl  and  lime.  ■ 

Fossil  shells,  or  marl,  so  called  improperly,  G7.  Improper  use  of  ihe  lerm  "  marl"*  in  England,  6S.:  Lime 
is,  in  tact,  generally  the  carbonate  in  operation,  69.  Oldest  trials  of  marl  in^Yirginia.  fu.  Preliminary 
remarks  on  experiment*,  TO 

Chapter  II. — Effects  of  calcareous  manures  on  acid  soils  recently  cleared. 

Experiments  stated,  and  the  Grst  and  subsequent  results  on  light  loam,Jnewly  brought  under  cultiva- 
tion,  71  to  77. 

Chapter  III. — Effects  of  calcareous  manures  on  acid  clay  soils,  recently  cleared. 


Chapter  IF. — The  effects  of  calcareous  manures  on  acid  soils  reduced  by  cultivation. 

Marling  always  effective  on  such  soils,  S2.    Causes  of  disappointment  and  lo^s.  S3.  'Experiments  show- 
ing best  and  worst  results,  the  evil  in  heavy  marling  and  the  remedy,  G  3 

Chapter  V. — Effects  of  calcareous  manures  on  "free  light  land." 

Peculiar  character  of  this  land,  69.     Effects  of  marl  thereon,  89.    Analysis  of  the  soil,  90. 

Chapter  VI. — Effects  of  calcareous  manures  on  exhausted  acid  soils  under  their 
second  growth  of  pines. 

Experiments  snowing  remarkable  benefits  from  marling  land  in  this  state  90 

Chapter  VII. — Effects  of  calcareous  manures  alone,  or  with  gypsum,  on  neutral 
soils.  ■ 

Experiments  difficult  lo  conduct,  and  unsatisfactory*  92.     Gypseous  {eocene)  marl  described  93.     Expe- 
riments and  their  results,  93. 

Chapter  VIII. — Digression  to  the  theory  of  the  action  of  gypsum  as  nmnure. 
Supposed  cause  of  its  want  of  effect  on  acid  soils. 

Gypsum  of  no  effect  on  acid  soils  95.    When  operative,  on  neutral  and  calcareous  soils  96.    Generally 
operative  on  acid  soils  after  marling  P6.    Reasons  for  these  results  97.    Illustrations  98. 

Chapter  IX. —  The  damage  caused  by  too  heavy  dressings  of  calcareous  manure,  and 
the  remedy. 

The  disease  caused  by  over-marling  described,  100.     How  prevented  or  removed  101.    The  mere  quan 
tity  of  calcareous  earth  not  the  cause  of  Una  disease,  HB. 

Chapter  X. — Recapitulation  of  the  effects  of  calcareous  manures,  and  directions 
for  tluir  most  profitable  use. 

Results  of  practice  generally  sustain  the  theory  of  the  action  of  calcareous  manures,  103.    Less  effica- 
cious above  the  .alls  of  the  rivers,  and  more  so  on  *•  mulatto  land"  than  the  theory  would  indicate, 

104.  Effect  in  fixing  putrescent  manures,  106.    Lt  ssa  benefit  on  most  exhausted  and  u  called"  land, 

105.  Effects  of  mail  En  resisting  the  washing  by  nuns,  and  in  curing  galls.  106.  Benefits' lessened  by 
exhausting  tillage,  106.  Light  u  le,  107.  Marlins  of  wood-lands,  107— on  "free  lieht 
land,"  108.  Soils  deepened  by  marling,  and  the  mode,  109.  Sandy  sub-soils  not  objectionable,  109. 
Peculiar  benefits  of  marl  on  certain  plants— and  especially  on  clover,  110.  Eradication  of  sorrel  and 
other  acid  plants,  111. 

Chapter  XI. — Recapitulation  of  effects  and  directions  for  practice  continued. 

Direction!  for  improving  by  marling,  113.    Prohibiting  grazing,  112.   The  four-shift  rots  lion  suitable,  113. 


CALCAREOUS   MANURES— CONTENTS  3  |  r, 

ClOTCl  1     :ird  niamir-'.  )  >::  u-oona 

1    ■  tnluneai 

/  nr  pu- 

:     III  (ipC. 

calcareous. 
Chapter  XIII. —  7' 

Mistake   . 

True  rain 1  inrl,  tn  mating 

Un  oxpra        r  martins, 

Chapter  XH'.—E  lunr.l.  s  of  1  applied  tn  mailing. 

Propel  ROOndl  i  :irl  and 

;-i  140. 

AT. — The  use  of  c  ve  putrescent 

manures,  and  tn  promoU  cleanliness  and  health. 

Effects  of  calcareo 

.    Ui.tit- 

.     Proofs 
addur.  from  the 

calcati  ,  ,jy  pro- 

duced by  marllnf, 

Chapter  A  VI. —  Directions  for  the  mc  ,  f  applying  marl  as 

man 

concern  ■ 

157.    Ken 
hilli,  160.    'Hi. 
erroi  in  unequal 

Chapter  AT//.  —  The  progress  of  marling  in  Virginia. 

Obstar-I.-   lot  rand  progress  of 

mullnfc  and  praei  .  ,„..  |63.    Blona 


PART  THIRD— APPEN 

Introductory  remarks      -  -  -  -       167 

Note  I. — Proofs  of :  of  acid  soils  j  irches 

Brrecllus'  work  MooM  or 

»m»ii  .  id  ci  lie  or  liumic 

mould,  i;.'.   Boll,  173     Acid  IjlW. 

I    '     II. — ./diliti'nuil  prooj  <f  black  wa- 

,tir*.  if  the  action  th  suit. 

Biack  01  dark  c  I 

r  i"  different  circa 
Proof  and  ilhi-  *  nation  of  colonng 

mfrialilv  matter  with  toe  soB,  the  natural  i « 


3]6  CALCAREOUS  MANURES- -CONTENTS. 

Note  III.— The  statements  of  British  authors  on  marl,  and  their  applications  of 
the  name  generally  incorrect  and  contradictory. 

Proofs  in  quotations  from  Kinvan.  ;  Johnson  nod  Walker,  1S3  :   Practical  Treatise  on 

Husbandry.   182;    l  Sjstema  Agriculture,'    1-2;    Evelyn's    'Terra,'  \?3;    Eordky   1*4;    '  Practical 
Treatise,"  &c.  in  regard 1  -  :    Lord  Kames  '.  - 

John  Sinclair,  M  ikaiid  Holkham  soils  and  marling,  188.    Proofs  and  quota- 

lions  from  Mar-  L  armors*  Journal,1  192;  Couai  Gylleuburg,"and  lat^  E 

tural  journals,  193. 

Note  IP. — Description  and  account  of  the  different  ki:.ds  of  marl,  and  of  the 
gypseous  earth,  of  the  tide-water  region  of  Pirginia. 

Object  of  the  report,  194.  Tnie  marl.  194.  French  marls,  195:  Classification  of  marls,  196-  Argillo- 
calcareous  eanh  or  true  ruarl.  197.  Shell -marl  197,  U  marl, 
of  the  tertiary  formation.  197.  Miocene  ka.K.1  s—  General  position,  characters,  kc.  l&r  ;  comparative 
value.  200.  Yellow  sandy  maris  S91;  yellow  clay  mail,  301 ;  crystals  of  carbonate  of  lime.  203;  blue 
maris,  909;  cause  ofci  Accidental  ingredients  of 
mar!-  -  neral  operaliou  of  mioceue  maris 
nsmai  b,ls—  Is,  containing  bat  ir  disco- 
very, and  known  extent,  and  peculiar  operation  as                  >              -  tarth  of  James 

river* — Its  first  Descrip  ion  of  appearance  and  general  character, 

212;  operation  as  manure, -214;  sulphureous  ga<  extricated  from  by  .'ion  of  the  Ciiff 

at  Evergreen,  and  section  of  same  and  of  pit,  216.    Statement  ot  strata  exposed  Ly  deepen.. 
Oovjgins  Point,  3  B,     .  Bar  forme*  of  this  matenal,  220.  Effects  a,=  manure,  compared  with 

the  New  Jersey  green  sand  "mart,"  220.    Analysis  i.f  gypseous  eartii  is?  Cjesiiia  Point,  by  . 
Sbepard,221.    K  ndmarl  of  Pamunkey,  225.    General  dese  ifieient 

kinds.  227.    Green-sand  in  miocene  maris, 331.    Known  shells  ot  marls  of  lower  Virginia,  234. 

Note  P.  —  The  earliest  known  successful  applications  of  fossil  shells  as  manure. 

Old  experiment  at  Bonaccord,  Prince  George  county,  235.    At  Spring  Garden,  Surry.  236.    In  King 
William,  236.    In  Talbot  :ouou  . 

Note  PI. — First  views  which  ltd  to  marling  in  Prince  George  county. 

Early  erroneous  opinions  and  practices  of  the  author  in  regard  to  fertilization  of  land,  241.  Mistakes 
discovered,  243.  Indications  of  correct  views,  214.  t'iisi  tri  .is  and  results  of  opinions  of  marling, 
245.  Obstacles  to  the  mod-*  of  improvement,  216.  Errors  of  practice  and  injury  therefrom,  251. 
Corrections  and  remedies,  252.    General  rc^u.lSj  253.    Particular  results  and  table  of  crops,  Stc.  354. j 

Note  PH. — Inquiry  into  the  causes  of  the  formation  of  prairies  and  of  the  peculiar 
constitution  of  soil  whichfavors  or  prevents- the  destruction  of  Vie  growth  of  in  es. 

General  and  erroneous  opinions  on  thi3  subject,  256.  Most  general  causes  of  absence  of  trees,  260. 
Proofs  of  positions  asserted,  derived  from  general  descnpUous  of  prairies,  pampas,  st^ppps,  itc.  260, 
272.    Analyses  ofpraiii  ■  •mauon  of  prairies  d-?duc«-d  and  exp!ained,  276.   Application 

of  the  views  to  improvement  or  preservation  of  It  and  apparent  con 

tradictions.279.    Ancient  prairies  of  *  irginia,  S79.     -  reoby  excess  of  carbonate  of  lime, 

and  fertilize  d  by  irrigation.  2;  J.   Tae  Bandy  deserts  of  Asia  and  Africa  supposed  to  be  excessively  cal- 
careous. 

Note  PII. — Recently  observed  powers  of  calcareous  earth,  for  increasing  the  pro- 
ductiveriess  of  land,  and  Vie  hcailhfulness  of  the  atmosphere. 

Composition  of  atmosplicr  ■  t  ike  from  the  purity  of  the  atmosphere  385. 

Opposite  operations  of  plants,  386,  which  are  greatly  increased  by  the  presence  of  carbonate  oi 'lime 
in  tlie  bc 

Note  Pill. — Directions  for  burning  and  applying  oystcr-shdl  lime,  286. 

Note  IX. —  On  the  sources  of  malaria,  or  of  autumnal  diseases,  in  Pirginia,  and 
the  means  of  remedy  and  prevent 


Mistaken  opinions  of  tlie  sources  prevent  attempts  to  avoid  malaria,  2S9.  The  effects  have  in- 
creased in  Virginia  from  the  first  settlement  until  recently,  290.  Proofs,  290-2.  Nature  of  malaria, 
293.  Certain  causes  of  the  production,  296.  Meeting  of  salt  and  fresh  waters,  296.  Embankment  and 
drying  of  marshes, 297.  Law  of  mills  and  mill-ponds,  29*.  Absurd  operation  ot,  and  evil  effects  on 
bealtn,  399)  300.  Discharge  of  floods  irom  mill-ponds  over  salt  marshes,  351.  Malaria  produced  from 
high  lands.  303.  Objections  and  exceptions  considered,  302.  Causes  of  general  increase  of  malaria 
with  time,  303.  The  causes  of  decrease  in  particular  cases,  305.  Means  of  prevention,  306.  Benefit 
to  bc  expected,  307.    Remedy  now  afforded  by  law  against  mill-pon  . 

Note  JE — A  machine  proposed  for  raising  marl. 

Description  and  figures  of  a  machine  used  at  Fortress  Monroe  for  raising  sand,  and  which  it  is  supposed 
will  be  well  adapted  for  raising  marl,  309- 1 1. 


